Background
Kahn was born Ahn June-hee (Hangul: 안준희) in Busan, South of Korea.
Kahn was born Ahn June-hee (Hangul: 안준희) in Busan, South of Korea.
His family moved to Jersey Village, Texas, a suburb of Houston, when Joseph was three. After graduating from Jersey Village High School in 1990, Kahn went to New York University"s Tisch School of the Arts. He later dropped out after one year to direct music videos.
In 1999, Kahn started his own production company with Chris Lee, SuperMega Media, which is housed under HSI Productions.
Kahn has worked with diverse artists such as Lady Gaga, Shakira, Aaliyah, Doctor Dre, Snoop Dogg, DMX, Backstreet Boys, Mariah Carey, Jordin Sparks, Christina Aguilera, 50 Cent, Britney Spears, Destiny"s Child, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Muse, Ciara, Monica, Courtney Love, Rob Zombie, U2, The Chemical Brothers, Blink 182, Chris Brown, Eminem, TLC, Ashlee Simpson, Moby, Kesha, George Michael, Korn, The Black Eyed Peas, Janet Jackson, BoA, Gwen Stefani, Brandy, AKB48, Pussycat Dolls, Sun Ho, Kylie Minogue, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, and many more. Kahn has collected multiple Music Video Production awards.
Kahn"s usage of Japanese popular culture in music videos first began with Janet Jackson"s "Doesn"t Really Matter" video. The video was also the most expensive video Kahn has directed and is among the most expensive of all time, costing over $2.5 million.
In 2014, Kahn was given The Icon Award by the United Kingdom Music Video Awards.
In 2015, Kahn directed Music Television"s choices for Video of the Year, Best People’s Video, Best Female Video, and Best Collaboration for multiple videos from Taylor Swift"s 1989 album. Kendrick Lamar.
Kahn has directed commercials for Acura, Bacardi, Bayerische Motoren Werke, Hewlett Packard, Gillette, Vodafone, Budweiser, ASICS, Renault, Mazda, Coors Light, National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, Saab, Ford and PlayStation. In 2011, he launched an Old Navy music video style campaign which garnered over a million YouTube hits in the first week.
He featured Bruce Lee using computer-generated imagery in an advertisement for Johnnie Walker.
Kahn also directed the 2004 action film Torque starring Ice Cube. In May 2007 it was announced that he would direct an adaptation of William Gibson"s science fiction classic, Neuromancer for producer Peter Hoffman.
On May 7, 2010 Fangoria reported that Vincenzo Natali, the director of Cube and Splice, had taken over directing duties and will also rewrite the screenplay. In 2010 Kahn directed the low-budget, self-financed horror comedy Detention.
After winning a number of audience favorite awards on the film festival circuit, Detention was picked up for theatrical distribution by Sony for a release in 2012.