Dennis Petersen grew up in northeast Ohio and began acting in
elementary school plays when he was seven. For his birthday, he was
giving a Kodak Brownie 8mm camera with which he began making backyard
shorts.
His first short film was
The Jogger (1984) which earned him awards from the
Hollywood Teenage Film Society, as well as a scholarship to the
Rochester Institute of Technology where he studied filmmaking.
His other award winning short films include, State of Disorder (1985),
and
Axe and Ye Shall Receive (1989). His first feature film was the thriller _Scot-free
(1995)_, which starred
Ellie Winkleman-Cabbage Valleau and
James Black.