Mottola grew up in Dix Hills, New York,[3] in a Catholic family of Italian and Irish descent.

Adventureland (2009) is a "first love" story about a group of college-age kids working at an amusement park in the 1980s.

It premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and received critical praise.

[6][7] He directed Paul, a science fiction/comedy film about two comic book nerds (played by the film's screenwriters Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) who meet an alien named Paul while vacationing in the US.

This article about a United States film director born in the 1960s is a stub.