JOE LEYDON was born and raised in New Orleans, where he acquired a taste for fine food and hearty partying at an early age. He graduated from Loyola University, where he developed an equally passionate regard for Charlie Chaplin and Francois Truffaut. The place where his love of film was nurtured was the New Orleans downtown Interstate Theatre, The Saenger. After repeated failed attempts to find honest work, he decided to make a living by getting paid to watch movies.

He is an award-winning film critic for Variety, the show business trade paper, and the Houston Examiner newspapers. He also teaches film history courses at University of Houston and Houston Community College, and serves as host for his own website at MovingPictureShow.com. Leydon is entertainment editor for Cowboys and Indians magazine and a columnist for Stereophile Ultimate AV. From 1982 until 1995, he was film critic for The Houston Post.

Since the paper's demise, he has reviewed films for the San Francisco Examiner, MSNBC.com, NBC affiliate KPRC-TV, A.M. Dallas Journal-Express, the Houston Press , FW Weekly and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Leydon also has written for New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Boston Globe, Dallas Observer, The Toronto Star, Austin American-Statesman and The Houston Chronicle; FilmScouts.com, Yahoo! and Movies.com; Reader's Digest, Film Comment, Inside Houston and New Orleans magazines; Entertainment News Wire and the United States Information Agency. His book Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must Seewas published in July 2004 by Michael Wiese Productions.