Joe O'Connell has written about the Texas film industry in columns for the Dallas Morning News, The Austin Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman. In the past he was a frequent extra (and often wrote about the experience for newspapers) in movies including Courage Under Fire, The Newton Boys, Varsity Blues, Where the Heart Is and in two episodes of the MTV television series Austin Stories.
In Courage Under Fire, he is magically in the same scene twice--as a bar patron and a guy on the telephone across the room.
He is the author of the novel Evacuation Plan, which won the North Texas Book Award and was a finalist for the Violet Crown Book Award.
