Roth began shooting films at the age of eight, after watching Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979). He and his brothers Adam and Gabriel made over 100 short films before he graduated from Newton South High School and attended film school (the Tisch School of the Arts) at New York University. To fund his films while in college Roth worked as an online cybersex operator for "Penthouse Magazine", posing as a woman, as well as a production assistant on feature films. Roth also ran the office of producer Frederick Zollo, leaving after graduation to devote himself to writing full-time. He collected unemployment and found work on Howard Stern's "Private Parts" as Stern's assistant, staying at Silvercup Studios in Queens at night working on his scripts while Stern slept.