J. J. Abrams

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. He 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–present), Undercovers (2010) and produced the television series Person of Interest (2011–present) and Alcatraz (2012). Abrams directed the films Mission: Impossible III (2006), Star Trek (2009), and Super 8 (2011), and produced the films Cloverfield (2008), Morning Glory (2010) and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011). Many of the films he directed/produced are by Paramount, while his television series were co-produced by either Warner Bros. or ABC Studios.

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Filmography
  • 4.1 Feature credits
  • 4.2 Television credits
• 5 Awards and nominations
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Early life

Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, where he attended Palisades Charter High School. He is the son of television producer Gerald W. Abrams and executive producer Carol Abrams. Abrams is Jewish,^[1] and attended Sarah Lawrence College.^[2]

Career

Abrams's 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's first produced film, which starred Charles Grodin and Jim Belushi. He followed that up with Regarding Henry, starring Harrison Ford, and Forever Young, starring Mel Gibson.

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,^[3] 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 Lost's 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.^[4]

In 2008, Abrams produced the monster movie, Cloverfield.^[5] In 2009, he directed the science fiction film Star Trek,^[6] 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.^[7]

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 for as well.

Abrams is 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.

The NBC network picked up Abrams's Undercovers as its first new drama series for the 2010–11 season.^[8] However, it was subsequently cancelled by NBC in November 2010.

He wrote and directed the Paramount supernatural blockbuster Super 8, while co-producing with Steven Spielberg and Bryan Burk; it was released on June 10, 2011.^[9]

Abrams is currently directing the untitled sequel to Star Trek. The film is scheduled for release in May 2013.^[10]

Under development (due in 2013^[11]) 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^[12], 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. ^[13][14] 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.^[15]

Personal life

Abrams is married to public relations exec Katie McGrath and has three children: sons August and Henry and daughter Gracie.^[2][16] He resides in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, United States.^[17][18]

Campaigns he has contributed to include those of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, 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.^[19]

Filmography

Feature credits

Year	Film	Director	(Executive) Producer	Writer	Notes
1990	Taking Care of Business			Yes
1991	Regarding Henry		Yes	Yes
1992	Forever Young		Yes
1996	The Pallbearer		Yes
1997	Gone Fishin'			Yes
1998	Armageddon			Yes
	The Suburbans		Yes
2001	Joy Ride		Yes	Yes
2006	Mission: Impossible III	Yes		Yes
2008	Cloverfield		Yes
2009	Star Trek	Yes	Yes
2010	Morning Glory		Yes
2011	Super 8	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol		Yes
2013	Untitled Star Trek sequel	Yes	Yes		In production[20]

Television credits

Year	TV Program	Credit	Notes
1998-2002	Felicity	creator, writer, executive producer, director, co-composer of theme music
2001-2006	Alias	creator, writer, executive producer, director, theme music composer
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-present	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
2012	Alcatraz	executive producer, theme music composer
	Shelter	executive producer	pilot[21]
	Revolution	executive producer	pilot[22]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
1999	Razzie Award	Worst Screenplay	Armageddon	Nominated
2002	Emmy Award[23]	Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series	Alias	Nominated
2004	PGA Award	Best Drama	Alias	Nominated
2005	ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards	Top TV Series	Lost	Won
	Directors Guild of America	Best Director	Lost	Nominated
	Emmy Award[23]	Best Director	Lost	Won
		Outstanding Drama Series[23]	Lost	Won
		Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series[23]	Lost	Nominated
2006	ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards	Top TV Series	Lost	Won
	PGA Awards	Best Drama	Lost	Won
	Writers Guild of America[24]	Dramatic Series	Lost	Won
2007	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Best Director	Mission: Impossible III	Nominated
	BAFTA Award	Best International	Lost	Nominated
	PGA Awards	Best Drama	Lost	Nominated
	Writers Guild of America	Dramatic Series	Lost	Nominated
2008	Emmy Award	Outstanding Drama Series	Lost	Nominated
2009	Emmy Award	Outstanding Drama Series	Lost	Nominated
	Writers Guild of America	Long Form	Fringe	Nominated
		New Series	Fringe	Nominated
2010	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Best Director	Star Trek	Nominated
	Emmy Award[23]	Outstanding Drama Series	Lost	Nominated
	Empire Awards	Best Director	Star Trek	Nominated
	PGA Awards	Theatrical Motion Picture	Star Trek	Nominated
	SFX Award	Best Director	Star Trek	Won
2012	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films	Best Director	Super 8	Nominated
		Best Writing	Super 8	Nominated
	SFX Award	Best Director	Super 8	Nominated

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: J. J. Abrams

• J. J. Abrams at the Internet Movie Database
• J. J. Abrams at AllRovi
• J.J. Abrams at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• J.J. Abrams at Lostpedia
• J. J. Abrams at TED Conferences
• J. J. Abrams on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about J. J. Abrams in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• J. J. Abrams collected news and commentary at The New York Times