Early life

Peli was born in Israel. At the age of 19, he relocated to the United States.

Career

Peli began as a computer software programmer, being one of the developers behind Photon Paint, a bitmap graphics program for the Amiga. His first film Paranormal Activity was inspired by Peli moving into his first house alone and without family nearby. Peli would hear creaks and knocks in the night, which laid the groundwork for a film about a family running around with cameras trying to catch what was going on in the house.

After the success of Paranormal Activity, Peli worked with James Wan and Leigh Whannell to develop Insidious. Peli also produced and wrote the 2012 horror film, Chernobyl Diaries, based on the Chernobyl disaster and on his story The Diary of Lawson Oxford. The film followed "a group of friends who, while vacationing in Europe, find themselves stranded in the abandoned city of Prypiat, Ukraine only to discover that they are not alone."

Television

In 2012, The River premiered on ABC, a paranormal/action/horror television series about a group of people on a mission to find a missing TV explorer in the Amazon. Peli co-created the show with Michael R. Perry, who co-wrote Paranormal Activity 2.

Films

Peli is writer and director of Area 51, a story about three friends who want to discover the secrets of the fabled Area 51. Peli is also the producer of all films in the Paranormal Activity franchise and The Lords of Salem.

Filmography

Year	Film	Director	Producer	Writer	Cinematographer	Editor
2007	Paranormal Activity	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2010	Paranormal Activity 2	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Insidious	No	Yes	No	No	No
2011	Paranormal Activity 3	No	Yes	No	No	No
2012	The River	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
	Paranormal Activity 4	No	Yes	No	No	No
	The Lords of Salem	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Chernobyl Diaries	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
	The Bay	No	Yes	No	No	No
2013	Insidious: Chapter 2	No	Yes	No	No	No
2014	Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones	No	Yes	No	No	No
2015	Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Insidious: Chapter 3	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Area 51	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No

[ Source: Wikipedia ]