Born in New York City, Demme grew up in Rockville Centre on Long Island, New York and attended South Side Senior High School He graduated from SUNY-Cortland in 1985 His media career likely began with a radio show at WSUC-FM (SUNY-Cortland) in Cortland, NY His show was a mix of comedy and talk radio with the usual sidekick, as well as some music and was widely listened to on and off campus He was the nephew of movie producer and director Jonathan Demme[3] His career had modest beginnings — starting as a production assistant at MTV, he later became a producer in the On-Air Promotions Department and created the cable network's seminal hip-hop show Yo! MTV Raps and directed other projects for them, including the infamous black-and-white rants starring then-unknown chain-smoking comedian Denis Leary Over the course of his career, he established a group of actors that he chose to work with on more than one occasion The most frequently used of these was Denis Leary, who he directed as a lead or star in No Cure for Cancer, The Ref, Denis Leary: Lock 'n Load, and Monument Ave Leary also worked as a producer on the 2001 crime drama film Blow which starred Johnny Depp as George Jung Other actors he frequently used included