J.J. Abrams Biography

Jeffrey Jacob "J. J." Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American film and television producer, screenwriter, director, actor and composer. He is well known for his work in the genres of action, drama and science fiction.

Abrams wrote and produced feature films before co-creating the television series Felicity (1998"2002). He also created Alias (2001"2006) and co-created Lost (2004"2010), Fringe (2008"2013), Undercovers (2010) and produced the television series Person of Interest (2011"present) and Revolution (2012"present), among others.

His directorial film work includes two Star Trek films; Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), along with Mission: Impossible III (2006) and Super 8 (2011). He will also direct Star Wars Episode VII (2015), the first film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Abrams produced the films Cloverfield (2008), Morning Glory (2010), and Mission: Impossible " Ghost Protocol (2011). He also played a role in the film Six Degrees of Separation.

Many of the films he has directed or produced are distributed by Paramount Pictures, while his television series were co-produced by either Warner Bros. Television or Touchstone Television. Abrams' frequent creative collaborators include writers Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci, composer Michael Giacchino, cinematographers Daniel Mindel & Larry Fong, and editors Maryann Brandon & Mary Jo Markey.

Early life

Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, where he attended Palisades High School. He is the son of television producer Gerald W. Abrams and executive producer Carol Ann Abrams (née Kelvin). His sister is screenwriter Tracy Rosen. Abrams is Jewish and attended Sarah Lawrence College.

Career

Abrams' first job in the movie business started when he was 16 when he wrote music for Don Dohler's film Nightbeast. During his senior year at college, he teamed with Jill Mazursky to write a feature film treatment. Purchased by Touchstone Pictures, the treatment was the basis for Taking Care of Business, Abrams' first produced film, which starred Charles Grodin and James Belushi. He followed that up with Regarding Henry, starring Harrison Ford, and Forever Young, starring Mel Gibson. He also co-wrote with Mazursky the script for the comedy Gone Fishin' starring Joe Pesci and Danny Glover.

Abrams collaborated with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay on the 1998 film Armageddon. That same year, he made his first foray into television with Felicity, which ran for four seasons on The WB Network, serving as the show's co-creator (with Matt Reeves) and executive producer. He also composed its opening theme music.

Under his production company Bad Robot, which he founded with Bryan Burk in 2001, Abrams created and executive-produced ABC's Alias and is co-creator (along with Damon Lindelof and Jeffrey Lieber) and executive producer of Lost. He later co-wrote the teleplay for Losts third season premiere "A Tale of Two Cities." As with Felicity, Abrams also composed the opening theme music for Alias and Lost.

In 2001, Abrams co-wrote and produced the thriller Joy Ride, and wrote an unproduced screenplay for a fifth Superman film in 2002.

In 2006, he served as executive producer of What About Brian and Six Degrees, also on ABC. Abrams directed and wrote the two-part pilot for Lost and remained active producer for the first half of the season. That same year, he made his feature directorial debut in 2006 with Mission: Impossible III, starring Tom Cruise.

Abrams spoke at the TED conference in 2007.

In 2008, Abrams produced the monster movie Cloverfield. In 2009, he directed the science fiction film Star Trek, which he produced with Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. While it was speculated that they would be writing and producing an adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels, they publicly stated in November 2009 that they were no longer looking to take on that project.

In 2008, he co-created, executive produced, and co-wrote (along with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman) the FOX science fiction series Fringe, for which he composed the theme music as well.

Abrams was featured in the 2009 MTV Movie Awards 1980s-style digital short "Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions", with Andy Samberg and Will Ferrell, in which he plays a keyboard solo.

NBC picked up Abrams' Undercovers as its first new drama series for the 2010"11 season. However, it was subsequently cancelled by NBC in November 2010.

He wrote and directed the Paramount supernatural movie Super 8, while co-producing with Steven Spielberg and Bryan Burk; it was released on June 10, 2011.

Abrams directed the sequel to Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, released in May 2013.

Under development (due in 2013) is Abrams' film with Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Productions, Mystery on Fifth Avenue. It is based on the New York Times article "Mystery on Fifth Avenue" about the renovation of an 8.5 million dollar co-op, a division of property originally owned by E.F. Hutton and Marjorie Merriweather Post. In 2008, it was widely reported Abrams purchased the rights to the Times article for six figures, and enlisted comedy writers Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky to write the adaptation. According to the article, a wealthy couple Steven B. Klinsky and Maureen Sherry purchased the apartment in 2003 and live there with their four children. Soon after purchasing the apartment, they hired young architectural designer Eric Clough, who devised an elaborately clever "scavenger hunt" built into the apartment that involved dozens of historical figures, a fictional book and a soundtrack, woven throughout the apartment in puzzles, riddles, secret panels, compartments, and hidden codes, without the couple's knowledge. The family didn't discover the embedded mystery until months after moving into the apartment. After Abrams purchased the article, Clough left him an encrypted message in the wall tiles of a Christian Louboutin shoe store he designed in West Hollywood.

Abrams will produce, under Bad Robot and with Bryan Burk, Earthquake for Universal Pictures. The film is being scripted by Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black, and while it shares a title and event with Universal's 1974 feature starring Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner, it will not be a remake.

On January 25, 2013, The Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm officially announced Abrams as director and producer of Star Wars Episode VII, the latest entry in the Star Wars film saga. Disney/Lucasfilm also announced that Bryan Burk and Bad Robot Productions would be producing the feature.

Following the news that he would indeed direct Star Wars Episode VII, speculation arose as to Abrams' future with Paramount Pictures, with whom he has released all of his previously directed feature work and which has a first-look deal with his Bad Robot Productions. Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore stated that Abrams will continue to have a hand in the highly successful Star Trek and Mission: Impossible franchises going forward.

Abrams announced at the 2013 D.I.C.E. Conference that Bad Robot has made a deal with Valve Corporation to produce films based on the video game titles Portal and Half-Life.

On September 9, 2013, it was announced that Abrams will be releasing a novel, S., written by Doug Dorst. The book will be released on October 29, 2013.

Personal life

Abrams is married to public relations executive Katie McGrath and has three children: sons August and Henry and daughter Gracie. He resides in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California.

Campaigns he has contributed to include those of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Sestak, Bill Bradley, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Bob Casey, Jr., Mark Udall, Harry Reid, Russ Feingold, Patrick J. Kennedy and Tim Kaine. However, he has also donated $2,000 to the Republican Robert Vasquez.

Filmography

Feature credits

Year	Film	Director	Producer	Writer	Actor	Notes
1990	Taking Care of Business
1991	Regarding Henry					also co-producer
1992	Forever Young					also executive producer
1993	Six Degrees of Separation					Doug
1996	The Pallbearer
1997	Gone Fishin'
1998	Armageddon
	The Suburbans
2001	Joy Ride
2006	Mission: Impossible III
2008	Cloverfield
2009	Star Trek
2010	Morning Glory
2011	Super 8
	Mission: Impossible " Ghost Protocol
2013	Star Trek Into Darkness
2015	Star Wars Episode VII					pre-production
TBA	Untitled Star Trek 3					In-Development
TBA	Untitled Mission: Impossible 5					In-Development

Television credits

Year	Program	Credit	Notes
1998"2002	Felicity	co-creator, writer, executive producer, director, co-composer of theme music
2001"2006	Alias	creator, writer, executive producer, director, theme music composer
2005	The Catch	creator, executive producer
2004"2010	Lost	co-creator, executive producer, writer, theme music composer, director
2007	The Office	guest director	Season 3, Episode 18
2006"2007	What About Brian	executive producer
	Six Degrees	executive producer
2006	Jimmy Kimmel Live!	guest director
2008"2013	Fringe	co-creator, executive producer, theme music composer, writer
2009	Anatomy of Hope	executive producer, writer, director	pilot
2010	Undercovers	co-creator, executive producer, writer, director, theme music composer
2011"present	Person of Interest	executive producer, theme music composer
2012	Alcatraz	executive producer, theme music composer
	Shelter	executive producer	pilot
	Family Guy	guest star	episode: Ratings Guy
2012"present	Revolution	executive producer
2013	Almost Human	co-creator, executive producer	pilot
	Believe	producer	pilot
	The Stops Along the Way	director	miniseries based on Rod Serling's screenplay

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
1999	Razzie Award	Worst Screenplay	Armageddon
2002	Emmy Award	Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series	Alias
2004	PGA Award	Best Drama	Alias
2005	ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards	Top TV Series	Lost
	Directors Guild of America	Best Director	Lost
	Emmy Award	Best Director	Lost
		Outstanding Drama Series	Lost
		Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series	Lost
2006	ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards	Top TV Series	Lost
	PGA Award	Best Drama	Lost
	Writers Guild of America	Dramatic Series	Lost
2007	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Best Director	Mission: Impossible III
	BAFTA Award	Best International	Lost
	PGA Award	Best Drama	Lost
	Writers Guild of America	Dramatic Series	Lost
2008	Emmy Award	Outstanding Drama Series	Lost
2009	Emmy Award	Outstanding Drama Series	Lost
	Writers Guild of America	Long Form	Fringe
		New Series	Fringe
2010	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Best Director	Star Trek
	Emmy Award	Outstanding Drama Series	Lost
	Empire Awards	Best Director	Star Trek
	PGA Award	Theatrical Motion Picture	Star Trek
2012	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Best Director	Super 8
		Best Writing	Super 8
2013	PGA Award	Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television

See also

• Saturn Award for Best Director