Early life

Underwood was born in Glendale, California. He was an AFS exchange student living in Ceylon which was renamed Sri Lanka. After graduating from high school he briefly attended Occidental College as a pre-med student, but transferred to the USC School of Cinema (now USC School of Cinematic Arts) after deciding to become a filmmaker. Underwood majored in cinema with a minor in anthropology.

Film career

Early career (1976-1989)

Upon completion of his fellowship at the American Film Institute, Underwood began working as a staff director for Barr films, a company specializing in the production of educational films. While directing and producing short films for the educational market, Underwood pursued work in the motion picture industry. One of the first movies Underwood worked on was Futureworld (1976) as a production assistant. The film starred Blythe Danner and Peter Fonda, actors he would later direct in 2004. During the filming of Futureworld, one of his tasks was to babysit a young Gwyneth Paltrow. Soon after Underwood served as the location manager on the Peter Hyams directed motion picture, Capricorn One (1978). Another early job was acting as an assistant director to first-time director David Schmoeller on Tourist Trap, a low-budget horror film. After this he continued to direct and produce educational films for the next seven years. In 1986 Underwood established himself as a director when his animated special The Mouse and the Motorcycle won a Peabody Award, which was followed two years later by the sequel Runaway Ralph, for which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination.

Mainstream breakthrough (1990-present)

Following his critically acclaimed venture into television, Underwood decided to have a go at directing feature films. His first effort was Tremors starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward and Reba McEntire in her acting debut. Written by his friends Brent Maddock & S. S. Wilson, it was released by Universal Studios in 1990. The film was well received by the critics and later established itself as a cult classic.

Underwood received his first taste of commercial success with 1991's City Slickers, which starred Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern and Jack Palance, who won an Academy Award for his performance. The film made $179m worldwide with a budget of only $27m. It was the tenth most successful film released in 1991 (the fifth most successful in the US). His next film, also written by Brent Maddock & S. S. Wilson, Heart and Souls (1993), was again well-received by critics but struggled at the box office (making a total of $16m in the US). It starred Robert Downey, Jr., Charles Grodin, Tom Sizemore, Kyra Sedgwick, Elisabeth Shue and Alfre Woodard. He followed this with Speechless (1994), written by Robert King and starring Michael Keaton and Geena Davis.

Given the opportunity to direct a big-budget film by Walt Disney Pictures in 1998, he was asked to direct Mighty Joe Young, a remake of the 1949 RKO film. The film, starring Charlize Theron in her first lead role, was nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects and featured some of the most sophisticated special effects seen in film up to that point, paving the way for later ape films like Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005). The special effects drove production costs to around $90m.

Following Mighty Joe Young, Underwood began work on Eddie Murphy fronted The Adventures of Pluto Nash. The film also starred Rosario Dawson and was filmed in Montreal, Canada. Unfortunately for Underwood, the film was greeted with universally poor reception, and proved a box-office failure.

Underwood has returned to his roots, directing both low-budget films and television. He directed Stealing Sinatra (2003) for Showtime, for which William H. Macy received an Emmy nomination, Back When We Were Grownups (2004) for the Hallmark Hall of Fame which garnered star Blythe Danner nominations for the Golden Globe and the Emmy, and In the Mix (2005), starring R&B singer Usher, Chazz Palminteri and Emmanuelle Chriqui for Lions Gate Entertainment. He directed several holiday themed movies for television: The Year Without a Santa Claus, Holiday in Handcuffs, Santa Baby and Deck the Halls. He has directed a number of episodic television dramas, including episodes of Monk, Boston Legal, Reaper, Ugly Betty, Eli Stone, Heroes, Chaos, Necessary Roughness, Harry's Law, Grey's Anatomy, The Glades, Burn Notice, Once Upon a Time, Desperate Housewives, Nashville, Scandal, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Quantico.

Filmography

Film director

Year	Film	Notes
1980	Deer in the Works	Short Film
1990	Tremors	Spawned four sequels and a Syfy network TV series
1991	City Slickers	Nominated for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical at the 1992 Golden Globe Awards
1993	Heart and Souls
1994	Speechless
1998	Mighty Joe Young	Remake of a 1949 film of the same name
2002	The Adventures of Pluto Nash	Razzie Award nomination for Worst Director
2003	Stealing Sinatra
2005	In the Mix

Television director

Year	Film	Notes
1986	ABC Weekend Specials	Episodes The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Runaway Ralph
2003	Monk	Episodes Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater and Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico
2004	Back When We Were Grownups	TV movie
	Boston Legal	Episodes Change of Course and The Ass Fat Jungle
2006	Santa Baby	TV movie
	The Year Without A Santa Claus	Live-action Remake, TV movie
2007	Holiday in Handcuffs	TV movie
	Reaper	Episodes Magic, My Brothers's Reaper, and Dirty Sexy Mongol
2008	The Secret Life of the American Teenager	Episodes Falling in Love, What Have You Done to Me?, and I Feel Sick
	Ugly Betty	Episodes Ugly Berry and Zero Worship
	Eli Stone	Episodes Owner of a Lonely Heart and One More Try
2009	Make It or Break It	Episode Where's Kaylie?
	Drop Dead Diva	Episodes The 'F' Word and Dead Model Walking
	Santa Baby 2	TV movie
2010	Heroes	Episode Chapter Twelve: 'Upon This Rock'
	Castle	Episode Food to Die For
	Happy Town	Episode Questions and Antlers
	No Ordinary Family	Episode No Ordinary Vigilante
	Hellcats	Episodes Worried Baby Blues and Finish What We Started
2011	Chaos	Episodes Song of the North and Love and Rockets and Mincemeat
	Necessary Roughness	Episodes Anchor Management
	Castle	Episode Food to Die For
	Harry's Law	Episodes American Girl and The Whole Truth
	Deck the Halls	TV movie
2012	Grey's Anatomy	Episodes Suddenly and The Girl With No Name
	Burn Notice	Episode Means and Ends
	Desperate Housewives	Episode What's the Good of Being Good
	Scandal	Episode Hunting Season
	Once Upon a Time	Episodes Red-Handed and Into The Deep
2013	Castle	Episode Scared to Death
	Once Upon A Time	Episodes Lost Girl and The New Neverland
	The Glades	Episodes Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves and Fast Ball
	Scandal	Episode Snake in the Garden
2014	Grey's Anatomy	Episodes Things We Said Today and You Got To Hide Your Love Away
	Nashville	Episode We've Got Things To Do
	Resurrection	Episode Us Against the World and Multiple
	Once Upon A Time	Episode Snow Drifts and White Out
	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Episode A Fractured House
2015	Grey's Anatomy	Episodes All I Could Do Is Cry
	Once Upon A Time	Episodes Best Laid Plans and Mother and The Dark Swan
	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Episode Devils You Know
	Nashville	Episode Unguarded Moments
2016	Once Upon A Time	Episodes Firebird
	Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.	Episode Bouncing Back
	Quantico	Episodes Drive

Awards and Nominations

Peabody Awards:

• 1986 Peabody Award ("ABC Weekend Specials", "The Mouse and the Motorcycle")

Daytime Emmy Awards:

• 1987: Special Class Directing (ABC Weekend Specials, "Runaway Ralph" nominated)

Saturn Award:

• 1994: Best Director (Heart and Souls, nominated)

Golden Raspberry Awards:

• 2003: Worst Director (The Adventures of Pluto Nash, nominated)

Directors Guild of America Award:

• 2007: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs (The Year Without a Santa Claus, nominated)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]