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Actor and filmmaker Joseph Culp was born in Los Angeles, a son of actor Robert Culp. He began acting in school plays at the age of nine. He trained as an actor in both New York and Los Angeles under various teachers, including Stella Adler, Herbert Berghof, Uta Hagen, Arthur Sherman, Kenneth MacMillan and John Lehne. He has been working in theatre, film and television since 1982. He most recently produced, directed, co-wrote and co-starred in the feature film Welcome to the Men's Group (2016) which stars Timothy Bottoms and Stephen Tobolowsky. He also produced and co-starred in the short Voice of Life (2013) by Norwegian director Knut Erik Jensen.
Culp produced and starred in the award-winning feature film, The Reflecting Pool (2008), the first investigative drama to challenge the official story of 9/11. Directed by Jarek Kupsc. Culp won international critical acclaim for his performance in Hunger (2001), an adaptation of Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun's 1890 masterpiece, written and directed by Maria Giese. In "Hunger" Culp co-produced and stars as "Charlie Pontus", a lonely screenwriter living on the brink of physical and spiritual starvation in Los Angeles. At the San Francisco IndieFest "Hunger" film received "Pick of the Pack" from the San Francisco Examiner, saying, "Joseph Culp's agreeable performance makes this one a champion!" SF Indie Fest wrote, "Joseph Culp's exquisitely naked performance and writer/director Giese ragged, guerrilla-video style add immeasurably to the bracing austerity of the film charging it with all the primitive beauty of an ancient Russian icon painting". Hunger (2001) is the first digital film made of a classic work of literature, the first American version of a Knut Hamsun novel, and was shot guerrilla-style on the streets of Los Angeles on a budget not exceeding $10,000.
"Hunger" won Best Feature at the 2007 Moondance International Film Festival and Best Underground Film at the 2007 FAIF Festival. Culp's other film credits include starring roles in Alan J. Pakula's Dream Lover (1986), Monte Hellman's Iguana (1988), The Arrival (1991), the lead in the action thriller Assault on Dome 4 (1996).
Culp is known to comic fans as the first actor ever to play "Doctor Doom" in the first film version of Marvel Comics' series The Fantastic Four (1994). He co-starred with Laurie Metcalf in The Secret Life of Houses (1994) on PBS, and for Mexican director María Novaro' (Danzón (1991)) in her tale of Mexican border life, El jardín del Edén (1994). He co-starred with John Savage in the sci-fi film Firestorm (1996) and was featured in HBO's Full Eclipse (1993), Ron Howard's Apollo 13 (1995), Mario Van Peebles' Baadasssss! (2003), and Panther (1995) and the western Los Locos (1997). He appeared with Mia Kirshner, Jean-Hugues Anglade and Connie Nielsen in the noir-thriller Innocents (2000), directed by Gregory Marquette, and starred opposite Ray Wise and Sonya Smith in the award-winning sci-fi comedy Cyxork 7 (2006), directed by John Huff. His many television appearances include House (2004) ER (1994), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Highway to Heaven (1984) and made-for-television movies such as Project: Tinman (1990), Blue Bayou (1990) and A Doctor's Story (1984). He co-starred with Richard Thomas in Hallmark's Wild Hearts (2006). Culp notably appeared in a recurring role as "Archie Whitman", the depression-era father of Jon Hamm's "Don Draper" in the critically acclaimed AMC series Mad Men (2007).
Joseph Culp directed the short film "Traces" (2011) which held premieres at Nordkapp Film Festival in Norway, Palm Springs International ShortFest, Tucson Film & Music Festival, and Hollywood Film festival. In addition to working in film and television, Culp has continued a commitment to the theater. In 2004, he starred in the New York stage premiere of "Foul Shots", by Raymond J. Barry and Barry's "Awake in a World That Encourages Sleep" (2011-2012) in both New York and Los Angeles. Theatre credits include "Summer and Smoke", directed by the late Kenneth MacMillan; opposite Ron Leibman in "Children of Darkness" at The Actor's Studio, and "A Wilder Evening - Six Short Works by Thornton Wilder", which he produced and directed and performed. He received a Drama Logue award for his performance as a rebel Irish coal miner in Jason Miller's "Nobody Hears a Broken Drum" in Los Angeles.
Joseph Culp is the founder of the Los Angeles-based "Walking Theatre Group/Workshop" (since 1992) where he performs as an actor, writer and director as well as conducting ongoing research in the training and practice of the "Walking-In-Your-Shoes" transpersonal technique and its use in creative process. He co-founded the Walking-In-Your-Shoes body/mind technique WIYS, which combines aspects of intuitive movement and spontaneous empathy. The workshop is open to the public and supports theater and film artists developing new material. The script for the 9/11 feature, "The Reflecting Pool", was developed in the workshop. He acted and directed his own adaptations of two short stories by Franz Kafka, "The Judgment" and "In the Penal Colony", which he performed with the Walking Theatre Group.
He directed an evening with the Walking Theatre Group - "Welcome to the Great Beyond", where the audience participated in a public demonstration and exploration of the "Walking-In-Your-Shoes" transpersonal process. Joseph also directed group shows of new work from the Walking Theatre Workshop, "Reclamation (series 1-5)". "Winter Walks" and "Food for Thought". His original musical-play "The Hound (An American Poem)" about a spiritual journey on the Greyhound Bus was developed with the Walking Theatre Group at the Electric Lodge in Venice, California. He is working on a book about the "Walking" technique for use in related workshops and groups. He is married to Lauren Culp and has two children, Jackson and Sedona.
