Jim Haggerty was born in Queens in 1973, where he grew up with a passion for filmmaking. He spent his childhood watching movies and saving up for a VCR with his family, which he considers a defining moment of his childhood. After making short, ten-minute cop movies with his friends using a camcorder, Haggerty graduated from Great Neck North High in 1991 and began studying film at Hunter College.
However, he became disillusioned with the film program at Hunter and switched to studying music at SUNY Old Westbury in 1993. During his college years, Haggerty hosted and created his own cable access television program, "Jim Haggerty's Rock N Roll Party," which featured interviews, music videos, and live performances from popular rock bands. The show developed a strong local following in Long Island and Manhattan.
After college, Haggerty began working in the music industry, taking a job at RED Distribution, a division of Sony. He attempted to make a space alien movie but it never reached completion due to one of the key actors' absence. For his next project, Haggerty decided to work with friends and friends of friends, writing a script on a mini-laptop during his daily commute and asking people to participate in the film.
The shoot and editing took longer than expected, but Haggerty's first completed film, "The Slasher," premiered on Halloween night in 2000 at the Malverne Cinema. Although the film received positive reviews, Haggerty struggled to find a distributor due to the decline of the video rental market.
Around this time, Haggerty's beloved grandmother, Ann Haggerty, passed away from cancer. He used the money she left him to buy a digital video camera, which allowed him to make films that could be easily distributed. He dedicated his next film, "I Dream of Dracula," to her memory and has since included a framed photo of her in his films.
Haggerty's second film, "I Dream of Dracula," was a horror-comedy that was a tough birth, with tensions on set and challenges during post-production. Despite these difficulties, the film received positive reviews and was screened at the Arlene Grocery Festival.
For his third film, Haggerty wrote a darker, grittier tale, "From The Inside," during a low period in his life.
