J. J. Abrams

• Born: June 27, 1966
• Place of Birth: New York, New York

SCREENWRITER, PRODUCER, AND DIRECTOR

Abrams is a talented producer, director, creator, composer, and screenwriter, who has the rare skill to be successful in both films and in television.

AREA OF ACHIEVEMENT: Entertainment

Early Life

J. J. Abrams was born on June 27, 1966, in New York, New York. His parents were Gerald, a television producer, and Carol, an executive producer. Even though his parents were not religious, Abrams considers himself to be Jewish and is proud of his heritage. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was five. He had an interest in films from an early age and knew for certain that he wanted to work in film after a visit to Universal Studios at age eight. His father worked at Paramount Pictures, so Abrams had an opportunity to see many shows in production. He was writing scripts by age nine and filming them, using his family’s video camera. He had a keen interest in special effects and by age thirteen was entering his films in children’s film festivals. One of his films won an award. He also met Matt Reeves, who would later collaborate with Abrams on the television show Felicity, at one of these festivals.

Abrams went to Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. The college encourages writing across all aspects of its curriculum, and this was beneficial to Abrams. He wrote screenplays in his spare time and honed his craft to the point where he was able to cowrite a feature film, Taking Care of Business, in 1988, his senior year. The film premiered in 1990 and starred Charles Grodin and James Belushi. Abrams went on to write and coproduce Regarding Henry (1991), which starred Harrison Ford, and Abrams wrote and produced Forever Young (1992), which starred Mel Gibson. Although none of Abrams’s screenplays up to that point pleased all the critics, they were good enough to give him a reputation as a capable writer and producer in Hollywood. In 1996, Abrams produced The Pallbearer and wrote the script for the film Gone Fishin’ in 1997. In 1998, Abrams helped to write the screenplay for Armageddon, which was his first work on a blockbuster film. Abrams was also working with his friend Reeves on what he thought was a film script about a shy young woman who begins her freshman year at a college in New York City. When he submitted his script to Touchstone Pictures, however, Abrams found himself pushed into the television industry.

Life’s Work

Touchstone Pictures believed that Abrams’s script was better suited for television, and Felicity became Abrams’s first series. The show starred Keri Russell and attracted a following quickly. It also received positive attention from the critics. Abrams made his directing debut on Felicity and brought his musical talents to bear by creating the theme music. The series ran from 1998 to 2002 and was so well received that it helped the newly founded WB Network, a joint venture of Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting, achieve popular notice. Abrams discovered that the premise of Felicity was limiting, and he joked that the show would be more interesting if the main character was a spy. During the run of Felicity, Abrams wrote and produced the film Joy Ride (2001), a well-received thriller about a truck driver taking revenge on two brothers who played a prank on him.

Taking a cue from his joke about Felicity, Abrams created the series Alias (2001–6). The lead was played by Jennifer Garner, who believed she was working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but she was actually working for a rogue intelligence agency. She had to reconcile her exotic life with her personal relationships and her work as a graduate student. Abrams described it as a comic book come to life and integrated the action-driven scenes with human elements. He was the series’ executive producer and director, and he composed the theme music. Alias was a success with both critics and fans, ranking as the second-highest-rated new drama at the time. The series won the People’s Choice Award for favorite new drama and won multiple Emmy Awards over its five seasons.

While he was working on Alias, Abrams took an idea from the former chairman of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Lloyd Braun, and created Lost with Jeffrey Leiber and Damon Lindelof. Abrams was the executive producer, he wrote for the show, and he directed episodes. The show, about the survivors of a plane that crash-lands on a mysterious island, combines elements of adventure, horror, mystery, fantasy, and conspiracy theory. With its large ensemble cast, the show was nominated for hundreds of awards and won more than fifty.

In 2006, Abrams was the executive producer of Lost, Six Degrees, and What About Brian. During this period, Tom Cruise selected Abrams to write and direct Mission: Impossible III (2006). The film was Abrams’s first as a director. The reviews were generally positive, and the film did well at the box office, cementing Abrams’s reputation as a quality director. Abrams was in such high demand that he signed multiyear contracts with both Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. for about fifty million dollars in 2006.

In 2008, Abrams coproduced the horror film Cloverfield, which was directed by his friend Reeves and written by Drew Goddard, who worked on Alias and Lost. The film was well received and was noted for its ability to create suspense. Fringe, a television series that Abrams cocreated, also debuted in 2008. The show explores the boundaries of science and mixes in horror and conspiracy theories. Abrams produced and directed a reboot of the classic Star Trek franchise, Star Trek, in 2009, which was the eleventh film in the franchise and turned out to be the highest-grossing of the series. The film received four Academy Award nominations and won one, which made it the only Star Trek film to win an Oscar.

After producing the comedy Morning Glory (2010), Abrams returned to television with executive producer roles on the short-lived series Undercovers (2010–11) and Alcatraz (2012) as well as the well-received Person of Interest (2011–16) before adding another Star Trek film to his repertoire, Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013), and producing another Mission Impossible installment, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. For his next big project, Abrams had the opportunity to work on one of the most iconic film franchises of all time, Star Wars. Serving as both director and producer, he helped craft the first film to pick up where the original trilogy had left off in 1983. Titled Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the film was released to critical and commercial acclaim in late 2015, pleasing many audiences with its commitment to replicating the style of the original films and even beating out Avatar (2009) as the highest-grossing film in North America within a month of its release. In addition to producing the television miniseries on the murder of John F. Kennedy based on Stephen King's novel 11.22.63 (2016) and the third rebooted Star Trek installment Star Trek Beyond (2016), he began working on Westworld, the critically acclaimed and star-studded series about a futuristic amusement park, on HBO (2016–2022). Late that same year, he revealed that he would be making his Broadway debut by helping to produce an American version of the hit British play The Play That Goes Wrong, with performances set to begin in 2017. Adams wrote and produced Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019.

In 2022, he was one of the producers of the animated short film The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which aired on BBC One. During the same year, it was announced that along with Leonardo DeCaprio, Adams would executive produce the series Billy Summers, based on a Stephen King novel. However, a year later, when Warner Bros. acquired the project, it was being repurposed as a feature film. Released on Amazon Prime in August 2024, Adams co-produced Batman: Caped Crusader.

Significance

Abrams is a multitalented individual in the entertainment industry. He is a top-notch screenwriter, winning Emmy Awards for his writing in two different series. He is also a successful producer and director, and he has won an Emmy Award for outstanding directing for Lost. He has created memorable musical themes for his television shows and has acted in small roles in a handful of films.

Abrams is one of the few people to be equally successful in television and in film. Few have the ability to adapt to the different media well enough to excel. Abrams’s body of work is critically acclaimed, and he has created iconic television series and motion pictures, making himself one of the most sought-after directors, producers, and creators in television and films.

Bibliography

Abrams, J. J. "Lucky VII: Superfan J. J. Abrams on Directing The Force Awakens." Interview by Scott Dadich. Wired, Dec. 2015, www.wired.com/2015/11/star-wars-force-awakens-jj-abrams-interview/. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Handy, Bruce. "The Daring Genesis of J. J. Abrams's Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Vanity Fair, June 2015, www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/05/star-wars-the-force-awakens-vanity-fair-cover. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

McCabe, Janet, and Kim Akass. Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond. I. B. Tauris, 2007.

Oromaner, Marc. The Myth of Lost: Solving the Mysteries and Understanding the Wisdom. iUniverse, 2008.

Power, Ed. "From 'The Next Spielberg' to Star Wars Pariah: Why J.J. Abrams Stopped Making Films." The Telegraph, 12 Jan. 2024, www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/jj-abrams-star-trek-star-wars-director-career/. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Vaz, Mark Cotta. Alias Declassified: The Official Companion. Bantam Books, 2002.