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After serving in the United States Air Force where he was recognized for Cold War service and for expert marksmanship, Chrest earned a BFA Degree in Directing from Marshall University (West Virginia) and a MFA Degree from Louisiana State University.

A veteran of over 100 screen roles, and over 60 plays and musicals, Chrest first appeared on the big screen as the malevolent bellhop, Ben, in Steven Soderbergh's King of the Hill (1993). He followed that with the widely acclaimed performance as Mr. Rodman in Soderbergh's "The Underneath". Nearly unrecognizable in many of his roles, Joe continues the chameleon-like range of these early performances to the widely different characters of recent films, from the steely quiet sharpshooter, Mitchell, in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) to Jonah Hill's nerdy dad, David Schmidt, in 22 Jump Street (2014) to the despicable Southern aristocrat, James Eakins, in Free State of Jones (2016).

Chrest performed onstage at, among other venues, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, working with Tony Award-winning directors, Gordon Davidson and Jerry Zaks, and London Theatre Award winner and Olivier Award nominee, Barry Kyle. He was a founding member of the regional theatre, Swine Palace, with RSC Director Emeritus Barry Kyle, and is the Founding Artistic Director of Ignition Film Repertory Company -- a company dedicated to nurturing and producing original works for the screen.

Married to choreographer Christine Chrest, the couple has two children, Nicolas and Samantha.

Tommy Thompson was born on 22 July 1937 in St. Albans, West Virginia, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Far North (1988), Carolina Low (1997) and Silent Tongue (1993). He died on 24 January 2003 in Durham, North Carolina, USA.