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Stacy Peralta

Skateboarding legend and documentarian Stacy Peralta stormed the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, taking home two top prizes for his look at '70s California skateboarding culture in the film "Dogtown and Z-Boys." Growing up in Venice, California, Peralta began to skate at a young age, and by 15 was competing with the Z-Boys, a local gang of boarders. He was one of the first ever to gain sponsorship deals for skateboarding, and his immense talent helped him legitimize the pastime. He also shot a great deal of video of himself and his friends during that era, and occasionally appeared in film and TV productions as a kid flying around on a skateboard. At 19 he quit boarding to found his own company, Powell Peralta, which manufactures high-quality skateboards. But his love for TV and film won out, and he left the company to produce and direct for TV. Early gigs working on the boarding series "SK8 TV" and HBO's comedy sketch series "Mr. Show with Bob and David" kept him afloat while he worked on compiling footage for "Dogtown and Z-Boys," a rambunctious look at the infamous skateboard team. The film won Peralta a slew of accolades, from Sundance to the Spirit Awards. He followed up this success in 2004, with a new documentary on surfing culture, "Riding Giants," and in '08 he took a distressing, first-person look at gang wars with "Crips and Bloods: Made in America."