Born in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Alan's earliest influence to follow a career in effects was the work of stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen. All the information that Alan could find about the foam latex process was contained in books and periodicals dealing with makeup, in particular foam latex prosthetics. that lead Big Al down the path of makeup effects. In the late 80s, Al moved from Ohio to L.A. to pursue his career, and did very well, accruing well over 100 film credits during a 15 year stint in L.A. Finally deciding to have kids after 20 years of marriage, Alan moved his family back to Ohio to raise his kids in a respectable school system. After returning to Ohio, Alan went to work with ex-L.A. cohort Robert Kurtzman, one of the founding partners of Kurtzman, Nicotero and Berger FX Group, with whom Alan had worked with on a myriad of projects while in L.A., including such projects as "From Dusk 'till Dawn", "Spawn", and the TV mini-series "Dune", for which KNB and Al won an Emmy award for Best Special Effects. Big Al has frequently served as the Makeup Effects Shop Supervisor and Coordinator for Precinct 13 Entertainment and Robert Kurtzman's Creature Corps (Kurtzman's companies in Ohio) over the last 14 years, and often served as VFX Supervisor for company projects, hearkening back to his days as a fervid fan of Ray Harryhausen.