Robert Nicholas Giraldi (born January 17, 1939) is an American filmmaker, music video and commercial director, educator, and restaurateur.

[3] In 1960, he worked as a graphic designer at General Motors in Detroit, then spent the next nine years as an art director and creative supervisor at the advertising agency Young & Rubicam and Della Femina & Partners.

[4] Although there have been several feature and short films, music videos, and restaurants to distract Giraldi from his commercial work down the years, he has never strayed far from the medium and the business that he owes it all to.

"[9] In a 2014 interview, Giraldi reflected back on the event, "I don't have fond memories of that shoot," he tells Yahoo Music, "It's not a moment that I like to remember.

[12] He went on to work with musicians such as Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ricky Martin, Hall & Oates, Will Smith, Barry Manilow, and Patti LaBelle.

[17] Dinner Rush (2000) starring Danny Aiello, John Corbett, and Sandra Bernhard[18] was filmed at the Tribeca restaurant Gigino, which is partially owned by Giraldi.

[citation needed] His 2008 film Second Guessing Grandma with Kathleen Chalfant, examining the coming out of a twenty-something to his 83-year-old grandmother, received the Jury Award for Short Narrative at the 27th Annual Chicago International Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Best Short at the Fresno Reel Pride Festival.

[22] His films A Conversational Place (2015) with Emmy winner Marilyn Sokol, New Year's Eve @ Sunny's (2016), Superfriends (2017), and The Whisperer (2018) played at various festivals.

[31] In 1995, Giraldi and Executive Producer Patti Greaney created the original website StarChefs.com, featuring celebrity chefs and cookbook authors.

[32] In 2014 Giraldi appeared on the TV series Celebrity Taste Makers with Danny Aiello, discussing his experience in the restaurant business as well as the making of Dinner Rush and its influence on later food shows, both reality and fictional.

In 1981 he directed and produced "Burnt Umber", a film featuring a then-unknown Denzel Washington for SVA's recruitment program.