Joel is a native of Philadelphia, the first born of a pair of identical
twins, and the third child of Edward and Mary Polis.
As children, the
"twinny boys", Joel and Terry, were always the center of attention among
their friends and family. The first sparks of the boy's dramatic interest
manifested in the carnivals, fun houses, and plays they staged in their
backyard and garage.
Around age of 11, the twins began to go their different ways. Although Halloween was an annual favorite for both boys, the costumes and play-acting took on a special resonance for Joel. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in his first full garage production of "Frankenstein" with playmate Howard Barken (the largest 8 year old in West Oak Lane) as the Monster. So successful was the premiere performance that Darlene Miller, a 10 year old neighborhood heart throb, wet her panties as she ran screaming out of the Polis' garage. Joel realized he was onto something special.
Joel's parents loved the movies and took the twins to see all kinds of films. Two in particular affected Joel's career choice. Robert Preston's performance in the film version of the hit Broadway show "The Music Man" enthralled him and he soon wore out the cast album learning all of the songs. The titillating cadences of "You Got Trouble", a popular patter song from the musical, opened the young man's ears to the hypnotic delight of language. Around the same time, the 12 year old went with a gang of neighborhood kids to a downtown movie house to see "Lawrence of Arabia". The following several nights, the West Oak Lane Police precinct noted a rash of mysterious sightings. An army of Bedouins was seen running around the neighborhood, led by a very vocal, small person, yelling, "C'mon Men!" in a suspicious English accent.
Upon entering high school, life took an athletic twist as Joel became
seriously involved in competitive gymnastics. His career led him to three
Philadelphia City Championship competitions and a full scholarship to the
University of Southern California. During his first year at USC a wrist
injury sidelined his training schedule and an acquaintance from the Theater
Department enlisted his interest in a production of "West Side Story". In
his first audition ever, he both won the part of A-rab and discovered the
note at which his voice would crack. However, with his gymnastic background,
he performed much of the acrobatics and dancing in the play. A scholarship with the
Summer Theater Festival followed this production and Joel toured in
England and Germany before landing at the Edinburgh Theater Festival. This
whirlwind tour of Europe, acting in 6 different plays by authors such as
O'Neill, Williams, and Inge, sealed his fate. "Besides", Joel was overheard
saying in a Haymarket donut shop at 4 am in Edinburgh that summer, "it sure
is easier to meet girls".
Dissatisfied with the roles he was offered at USC, Joel interrupted his college career with a stint as a clown in a West Coast arena show, tumbling, dancing, and sweating off five pounds a show, three performances on Saturday and Sunday. The job lasted three months as he found the performance schedule "not a lot of fun". In a Greyhound Bus depot in Mill Valley, California an ad for the Summer Training program at NYU lured Joel to New York for the first time, where he began a life long love affair with the Big Apple. He studied with Broadway director, Lloyd Richards, who opened his eyes to Acting technique and introduced him to the New York Theater community. He also learned to ride a unicycle.
On Lloyd's advice, he returned to USC
to complete his BA and subsequently
auditioned for and was accepted to the MFA program at Yale Drama School.
The Drama School was a towering collection of diverse and unique talent.
Yale exposed Joel to some of the world's greatest actors, directors,
designers, and playwrights, broadening his interest in and abilities on the
stage. Carmen DeLavallade, Andre Wadja, Meryl Streep, Ming Cho Lee,
Christopher Lloyd, and Chris Durang, are a few of the many artists who
influenced his possibilities in his graduate school years.
Masters Degree in hand, 
Joel moved to New York where his first role was that of suffering artist.
A stuttering first year ended with a last minute
audition for Dick Goldberg's "Family Business", which brought critical kudos
and a 13 month run at the Astor Place Theater. He went on to perform in the
regional theater circuit with jobs at the Hartford Stage Company, the West
Chester Theater Company, the Long Wharf, Buffalo's Studio Arena, and
Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theater, to name some of the venues he played
during his life in New York.
In his two and a half
decade career on the stage, he has also performed at
the Old Globe Theater, the South Coast Repertory, the Mark Taper Forum,
Rochester's GeVa Theater, and many other local and regional theaters all
over the country.
And although he enjoys living in Venice Beach, California, he loves to work in New York. His first love is the Theater, especially the work involved in developing new plays.