Glenn Rockowitz (b. May 27, 1970, Plainview, New York), is an American writer, filmmaker and comedian who wrote and directed the cult independent film Hacks in 2002. The film garnered many festival awards including Best Comedy at The New York Film Festival; Best Picture at the Chicago Digital Film Festival; and Best Picture at the Orinda Film Festival outside of San Francisco.
Rockowitz graduated from Arcadia High School in 1988, where he was class president. He then attended The University of Arizona, in Tucson. A graduate of Chicago’s famed Second City, Rockowitz went on to write and perform stand-up comedy for many years throughout the United States. In 1995, he founded a nonprofit AIDS and cancer charity in NYC, known as The Best Medicine Group—an organization that brought hundreds of live comedy shows into the homes of terminally-ill patients throughout the metropolitan New York area.
In March 1998 Rockowitz founded Keep Your Receipt, an irreverent line of greeting cards designed to provide steady funding for several cancer charities.
Rodeo in Joliet, a memoir of his battle with a very aggressive late-stage cancer, was released nationally on April 11, 2009. By early 2010, the book became a word-of-mouth bestseller and was subsequently optioned to become a major motion picture. It was reported in Variety that the film is to be adapted by screenwriter Ryan Knighton and released in 2013.