Joel Schumacher is an American film director, producer and screenwriter.

Joel Schumacher started his career in Hollywood with the screenplay for the musical drama Sparkle in 1976. His film directorial debut was The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981.

Two films in the 80s, St. Elmo's Fire and The Lost Boys were directed by Schumacher.

He also directed two adaptations of John Grisham novels: The Client in 1994, and A Time to Kill in 1996. Then, he replaced Tim Burton in directing Batman Forever, 1995's second-highest grossing film of the year. 

He also directed the sequel Batman & Robin in 1997. Then, Schumacher tried to do low budget films such as 8MM and Flawless.

Aside from directing films, he showcased his artistic side in doing music videos of Seal's "Kiss from a Rose", and Smashing Pumpkins' "The End is the Beginning is the End."

Joel T. Schumacher was born on August 29, 1939 in New York City, New York, USA. He studied at Parsons The New School for Design and he earned MFA from UCLA.