Greg Glienna

Glienna grew up in the Park Ridge suburb of Chicago and took an interest in filmmaking from an early age, often working alongside his childhood friend James Vincent, who later produced the original Meet the Parents.^[5] He attended Columbia College Chicago before dropping out to study improvisational comedy at The Second City while continuing to make short films. He conceived of the core idea for the original Meet the Parents after acting out a scene with a friend wherein he portrayed a man meeting his girlfriend's father, turning it into a short film entitled The Vase, in which he played a man meeting both of his girlfriend's parents who breaks their prized vase. Hoping to make this concept into a full-length feature, Glienna wrote the 80-page screenplay for Meet the Parents alongside Mary Ruth Clarke in one month, to the approval of comedian Emo Philips, who signed on as a producer, wrote the film's title theme, and cameoed as a video store employee.^[6]