J. J. Abrams
Abrams at the Time 100 Gala in Manhattan, May 4, 2010
Born	Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (1966-06-27) June 27, 1966 (age 45) New York City, New York, U.S.
Residence	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Ethnicity	German, Jewish
Occupation	Film and television producer, director, screenwriter, actor and composer.
Years active	1990–present
Spouse	Katie McGrath
Children	3

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.

Early life[link]

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[link]

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 at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010

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[link]

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[link]

Feature credits[link]

Television credits[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

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

Harry Knowles
Knowles at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010.
Born	(1971-12-11) December 11, 1971 (age 40) Austin, Texas
Occupation	Writer, critic
Spouse	Patricia Cho Jones (July 15, 2007 – present)

Harry Jay Knowles (born December 11, 1971) is a film critic and writer known for his website called Ain't It Cool News. Knowles is a member of the Austin Film Critics Association.^[1]

Biography[link]

Harry Jay Knowles was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Jarrell Jay Knowles and Helen Jane (Harrison) Knowles, who married September 19, 1970, in Austin. His early years were spent traveling the Southwest and Mexico with his parents who did light shows for touring rock bands. His parents then settled in Austin and began trading comic books and movie memorabilia from the upstairs floor of their Victorian era house, as well as from Austin's first comic and movie memorabilia store, the N.E. Mercantile Company, Inc. (N.E. was short for "New Economics"), which they founded in 1970 and ran until 1984. Knowles's parents also produced the Austin Fantasy Film Fest in 1976, one of the first science fiction conventions in Austin. Knowles spent many hours watching B-grade horror movies as well as other genres from mostly bootlegged 16 mm prints.

Knowles's parents separated in 1983 and divorced March 12, 1984; his mother received custody of him and his younger sister Dannie. The children subsequently lived with their mother on her family's ranch, the Portwood Ranch in Seymour, Texas. His mother took possession of the comics, films, and related ephemera, and placed their ownership in the names of Harry and Dannie. With nothing better to do on the ranch, Knowles spent more time immersed in reading comics and watching movies. Knowles's other activities included the Boy Scouts of America and he attained the rank of Eagle Scout.^[2] In 1989, at age 17, Knowles moved back in with his father. His mother died in a fire on December 5, 1992, on the Portwood Ranch, and Dannie moved back to Austin shortly thereafter.

Following his divorce from Helen, Harry's father founded Jay's 20th Century Esoterica in Austin in 1985, and was later joined by Harry after he graduated from high school and moved back to Austin in 1989, and by Dannie in 1992. In 1994, Harry Knowles fell while pushing a cart up a ramp at a convention, and was subsequently run over by the cart with its 1,200-pound load of memorabilia. The accident injured his back and left him virtually bedridden. With an unexpected bequest of $5,000 from his mother's life insurance, he purchased a top-of-the-line computer and a friend arranged for Internet service so they could play Doom online together. Jay, Harry and Dannie ran Jay's 20th Century Esoterica until Ain't It Cool News "took off" in 1996, and the family went out of the memorabilia business, but retained their extensive collections and continue to add to them.

Knowles married Patricia Cho Jones on July 15, 2007 at Green Pastures in Austin.^[3]

On April 4, 2008, Knowles announced that he was diagnosed as a Type-2 diabetic.^[4] On May 20, 2008, Knowles underwent lapband surgery to help alleviate his diabetes and to help lose much of the weight that has contributed to his health issues. In January 2011, Knowles underwent emergency spinal surgery to his T-10 vertebrae. According to Knowles, the surgery restored sensation in his legs for the first time in over 15 years, and he will now be undergoing physical therapy to learn to walk again.^[5]

Career[link]

After purchasing a computer in 1994, Knowles taught himself how to navigate the Internet and began frequenting newsgroups to exchange gossip and rumors with other fans about upcoming films. After being chastised by future film critic Mike D'Angelo for posting binary image files to the newsgroups, Knowles launched the website that would become Ain't It Cool News in February 1996.

Due to the popularity of the website, Knowles was sought out by the mainstream media, including magazines, newspapers, and television news programs. In 2000, he was ranked #95 in the Forbes Power List. Knowles has made guest appearances on the television shows Siskel & Ebert & the Movies and Politically Incorrect.^[6]

Harry Knowles is featured in the documentary For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism as an advocate of film criticism on the Internet; he articulates the divide between older and younger critics and advocates for the films of Michael Bay.^[7]

He was also played by Ethan Suplee in the 2009 movie Fanboys.

In April of 2012, Harry released the first episode of a new YouTube series. The show caused an uproar over the review of a script that turned out to be fake, which is not the first time such an incident has occurred at the website. Reviews for the show are forthcoming but SFWeekly criticized the show as, "the worst thing...since the website".^[8]

Film events[link]

Every year since 1999, on the weekend closest to his birthday (December 11), Knowles hosts an event called Butt-Numb-A-Thon (BNAT). The event, also known as Geek Christmas, is a 24-hour celebration of film, featuring un-official premieres, and vintage films- from classics reprinted for the big-screen, to the rare, weird and unheard of. Film fans and professionals alike travel from all over the United States and the world to attend the event, which is hosted in the critic's hometown of Austin, Texas at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse. BNAT has been called "the world's most exclusive and mysteriously secretive film celebration" and "the hardest film event to get into in the country".

Additionally, Knowles co-programs Austin's Fantastic Fest, an eight-day film festival focusing on the genres of horror, science fiction and fantasy. This event is also held annually in September at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's South Lamar location in Austin.

Controversies[link]

Knowles attends events offered to the press, paid for by the movie studios, including visits to movie sets and premieres. Questions have sometimes emerged about the resulting impartiality of his articles and reviews.^[9] For example, he was flown to the premiere of Godzilla, and gave the movie a wildly positive review,^[10] while a vast majority of critics disliked the film.^[11] Knowles later reversed himself and panned the film after the ensuing outcry. Knowles and his defenders, however, have noted that he has given mixed reviews to movies for which he has been sent to junkets and premieres, and in any case is often out of step with mainstream critics. Knowles also gave a negative review to the film Monkeybone, in which he made a cameo appearance.^[12]

In another controversy in 1999, he wrote an article praising a script by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan. He failed to mention, however, that McWeeny was a contributor to the site, writing under the pseudonym "Moriarty." This and other alleged lapses were reported in a series of articles in Film Threat magazine.^[13]

In early 2000, Knowles posted materials stolen from an ABC staffer's home computer, which Knowles took at face value to be the Oscar nominees for the Academy Awards—a day before the official announcement. When the actual nominees were announced the following day, it was discovered that his finalists in almost every category were incorrect. Knowles acknowledged his error when it became clear he was wrong, but then disclosed the IP address of the person whose computer had been hacked, compounding the error. The Academy considered suing Knowles for trademark and copyright infringement, but ultimately decided against it.^[14]

Harry became the subject of more controversy in the TalkBack section of his Drive review, due to the belief that he had pirated the film. Many AICN "talkbacker's" pointed out that the films' composer, Cliff Martinez, had been replaced in the pirated versions of the film with Angelo Badalamenti. Harry managed to name the wrong composer and upon realizing his error quickly changed the review to reflect Cliff Martinez as the original composer.^[15]

On April 5, Harry posted the first episode of a new YouTube series based on the website. In the video Harry receives a copy of the script to the upcoming science-fiction film Prometheus. The following day, Harry reviewed the script on the website. Talkbackers immediately suspected it was nothing more than an example of fan fiction due to poor grammar and structuring. One of the writers on the film, Damon Lindelof, later tweeted that an element present in the script Harry reviewed was not present in the actual script and implied Harry had "been duped".^[16]

Film credits[link]

• The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)
• Colin Fitz Lives! (1997)
• The Faculty (1998)
• Monkeybone (2001)
• Ghosts of Mars (2001)
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
• No Pain, No Gain (2005)
• Pathogen (2006)
• Zombie Girl: The Movie (2008)
• My Sucky Teen Romance (2011)

Further reading[link]

• Harry Knowles, Paul Cullum, Mark Ebner. (March 5, 2002). Ain't It Cool? Hollywood's Redheaded Stepchild Speaks Out (1st edition). Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-52597-9.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ain't It Cool News
• Harry Knowles at the Internet Movie Database
• Harry Knowles on Twitter