Josh Ruben

Josh Ruben (birthname: Joshua Benjamin Ruben) began his career in web-based sketch comedy videos, became a movie and TV actor, and then expanded to making his movies in the horror genre. Ruben’s feature acting phase began in 2012 in indie movies (several premiering at the Sundance and South by Southwest Film Festivals) such as For a Good Time, Call… with Ari Graynor, Lauren Miller Rogen, Mimi Rogers and Nia Vardalos; Coffee Time (2013); director/writer/producer Ralph Arend’s Worst Friends (2014); What Children Do (2017); the Duplass Brothers-backed comedy-drama musical Unlovable (2018) with co-writer Charlene deGuzman, John Hawkes and Melissa Leo under Suri Yoonessi’s direction and released by Orion Classics; and directors/writers/co-stars Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe’s surrealist black comedy released by IFC Midnight, Greener Grass (2019), while Ruben was simultaneously working as a director in television, video and short films, including a Zoolander spoof titled Zoolander Returns to the Runway (2015).

Ruben made his successful debut as a feature director/writer/producer with the comedy horror movie, Scare Me (2020), starring Anya Cash, Ruben, Rebecca Drysdale, and Chris Redd, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before a release by Shudder. Ruben stayed in the comedy-horror vein for his next feature as director only, Werewolves Within (2021), based on Red Storm Entertainment’s video game, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival before a release by IFC Films.

Josh Ruben was again director only of the rom-com slasher movie filmed in New Zealand, Heart Eyes (2025), starring Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Gigi Zumbado, Michaela Watkins, Devon Sawa, and Jordana Brewster, and released wide by Screen Gems-Sony Pictures Releasing (North America)/Republic Pictures-Paramount Pictures (ex-North America). Ruben then directed the horror-sci-fi drama, Green Bank (date to be announced), written by Aaron Horowitz and co-starring Tatiana Maslany and Jasmin Savoy Brown.