John DiLeo is the author of eight books about classic movies: AND YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW CLASSIC MOVIES (1999, reissued in 2013), 100 GREAT FILM PERFORMANCES YOU SHOULD REMEMBER BUT PROBABLY DON'T (2002), SCREEN SAVERS: 40 REMARKABLE MOVIES AWAITING REDISCOVERY (2007), TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND COMPANY: HIS ESSENTIAL SCREEN ACTORS (2010), SCREEN SAVERS II: MY GRAB BAG OF CLASSIC MOVIES (2012), TEN MOVIES AT A TIME: A 350-FILM JOURNEY THROUGH HOLLYWOOD AND AMERICA 1930-1970 (2017), THERE ARE NO SMALL PARTS: 100 OUTSTANDING FILM PERFORMANCES WITH SCREEN TIME OF TEN MINUTES OR LESS (2022), and NOT EVEN NOMINATED: 40 OVERLOOKED COSTARS OF OSCAR-WINNING PERFORMANCES (2024).

Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, John currently resides in Milford, PA. He went to Ithaca College and received a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts. After thirteen years of on-and-off stage acting, and one film credit (THE JERKY BOYS), he switched to writing about film.

John has been a contributing book reviewer for the Washington Post‘s Book World and frequently hosts classic-film series, appears on radio programs, conducts film-history seminars, and has been an annual participant in the Black Bear Film Festival in the Poconos where he conducted onstage interviews with Farley Granger (2005), Arlene Dahl (2006), Marge Champion (2010), Keir Dullea (2014), Jane Powell (2015), Rex Reed (2016), Tab Hunter (2017), Lorna Luft (2018), and Jane Alexander (2018). His website is johndileo.com and he's on Instagram at john.dileo.12.

Born in 1961 in Brooklyn, John was raised on Long Island and graduated from Ithaca College in 1982 with a B.F.A.