[5] As a teenager, DeCoteau developed a love for film, and worked as a theater projectionist beginning at age fifteen.
He got his start through Roger Corman, who hired him in 1980 as a production assistant at New World Pictures.
He is the founder of Rapid Heart Pictures, where his films include A Talking Cat!?!
If somebody said, ‘Look, we need a horror film, we need a creature feature, we need a Western, we need a period costume drama,’ I was able to put it together pretty quickly.
"[6] Throughout his career DeCoteau has been credited under a variety of pseudonyms: Ellen Cabot, Julian Breen, Victoria Sloan, Richard Chasen, Jack Reed, Martin Tate, Joseph Tennent, and Mary Crawford.