[3][4] At age 15, he began competing with the Z-Boys, a group sponsored by the surf shop Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions along with Perry Caravello.

With the financial backing of Powell-Peralta, Peralta formed the seminal Bones Brigade, a team composed of some of the best skaters at the time, many of whom revolutionized modern skateboarding.

Peralta is also credited in the 1985 movie Real Genius, playing the commander of a fictional space vehicle delivering a deadly laser blast to an unsuspecting criminal during the film's opening scene.

[7] Peralta served as the Second Unit Director and Skating Technical Advisor in the 1989 film, Gleaming the Cube, directed by Graeme Clifford and starring Christian Slater.

This film provides insights into the origins of the infamous Crips and Bloods street gangs, and also offers a look at the social injustice in Los Angeles in the 1950s and '60s.

It includes interviews with Rodney Mullen, Craig Stecyk, Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, and Peralta himself, among others.