Joey Cramer was born on August 23, 1973 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as Deleriyes August Joe Fisher Cramer. His debut was in the Sci-Fi movie Kaçış (1984), directed by Jurassic Park (1993)'s writer, Michael Crichton. 1986 was his most successful year after having a brief role as young Broud, in The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), as the son of Scott Bakula in the Disney TV movie I-Man (1986), and being the main star in another Sci-Fi movie, Flight of the Navigator (1986), directed by Randal Kleiser (Grease (1978)'s director), at the same time that he appeared in a double episode from the TV series Cinayet Dosyası (1984). In 1987, after appearing in Stone Fox (1987), he ceased acting in order to continue his studies. He attempted a return to cinema in 1996 in a brief and uncredited role in It's My Party (1996).

Cramer began to run into conflict with legal authorities, and on May 1, 2016, he was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Sechelt, located about 30 miles northwest of Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada), in relation to a local bank robbery that occurred on April, 28. On June 8, 2016, he pleaded guilty to charges of robbing a bank, wearing a disguise to commit a crime, fleeing the police and dangerous driving.

In 2018, production began on a feature documentary of his life, Life After the Navigator (2020), directed by Lisa Downs, released worldwide November 2020.