Joseph Toufik Merhi (born October 23, 1953) in Syria, is an indie film director and producer. In 1984, along with fellow director Richard Pepin, Merhi founded the production company City Lights, which changed name a few years after to PM Entertainment. The company was sold in 2000 and closed soon after. Before entering the movie industry, Merhi was the owner of several pizzerias located in the Las Vegas, Nevada area. So far, he has directed a total of 32 movies, and produced more than 100. He has produced many movies. He is well known for his action scenes involving car chases and big explosions. His last directed movie was Executive Target (1997). After that, he decided to leave the director chair and slowly moved on as a producer/executive producer of straight-to-DVD movies, until he returned to direct Oranges (2008) ten years after his last effort. (Via TMDB)
