Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born on June 27, 1966, in New York City, New York to veteran television producer Gerald W. Abrams (born 1939) of Polish-Jewish descent and Carol Ann Abrams (née Kelvin; 1942–2012), a Peabody Award winning television executive producer as well as author and law academic.[3] His sister is the screenwriter Tracy Rosen. His father worked at CBS in Midtown Manhattan the year prior to Abrams' birth. By 1971 the family had relocated to Los Angeles. His mother worked as a real estate agent while Abrams and his sister were at school.[3]
In 1994, he was part of the "Propellerheads" with Rob Letterman, Loren Soman, and Andy Waisler, a group of Sarah Lawrence alums experimenting with computer animation technology. They were contracted by Jeffrey Katzenberg to develop animation for the film Shrek.[7] Abrams worked on the screenplay for the 1998 film Armageddon with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay. That same year, he made his first foray into television with Felicity, which ran for four seasons on The WB Network, serving as the series' 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,[8] Abrams created and executive-produced ABC's Alias and is co-creator (along with Damon Lindelof and Jeffrey Lieber) and was executive producer of Lost. As with Felicity, Abrams also composed the opening theme music for Alias and Lost. Abrams directed and wrote the two-part pilot for Lost and remained active producer for the first half of the season. Also in 2001, Abrams co-wrote and produced the horror-thriller Joy Ride.[9] In 2006, he served as executive producer of What About Brian and Six Degrees, also on ABC. He also co-wrote the teleplay for Lost's third-season premiere "A Tale of Two Cities" and the same year, he made his feature directorial debut with Mission: Impossible III, starring Tom Cruise. Abrams spoke at the TED conference in 2007.[10][importance?]
In 2008, Abrams produced the monster movieCloverfield, which Matt Reeves directed.[11] In 2009, he directed the science fiction filmStar Trek,[12] 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.[13] In 2008, Abrams co-created, executive produced, and co-wrote (along with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman) the FOX science fiction series Fringe, for which he also composed the theme music. He 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's Undercovers as its first new drama series for the 2010–11 season.[14] However, it was subsequently cancelled by the network in November 2010.
Abrams directed the sequel to Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, released in May 2013.[16] The film was interpreted as a loose remake of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.[17] Critics generally reacted positively to the film, while Nicholas Meyer, the director of The Wrath of Khan, called it a "gimmick".[18] Abrams was criticized for the film's treatment of classic villain Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch). Many felt that much of the character, originally played by Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán, had been lost, especially his ethnic identity.[a] Two years after the film's release, Abrams said of the film, "there were certain things I was unsure of. ... Any movie ... has a fundamental conversation happening during it. And [for Into Darkness,] I didn't have it... [The weakness of the plot] was not anyone's fault but mine. ... [The script] was a little bit of a collection of scenes that were written by my friends ... And yet, I found myself frustrated by my choices, and unable to hang my hat on an undeniable thread of the main story. So then I found myself on that movie basically tap-dancing as well as I could to try and make the sequences as entertaining as possible. ... I would never say that I don't think that the movie ended up working. But I feel like it didn't work as well as it could have, had I made some better decisions before we started shooting."[20]
On January 25, 2013, Disney and Lucasfilm introduced Abrams as director and producer of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh entry in the Star Wars film saga,[21] with Bryan Burk and Bad Robot producing the film.[22] Following this news, speculation arose as to Abrams's future with Paramount Pictures, under which he had released all of his previous feature work as a director, and which had a first-look deal with his company, Bad Robot. Paramount vice-chairman Rob Moore stated that Abrams would continue to have a hand in the Star Trek and Mission: Impossible franchises going forward.[23]
Abrams directed, produced, and co-wrote the screenplay for The Force Awakens,[24] which opened in theaters on December 18, 2015.[25][26] Despite its strong box office performance and positive reviews, the film was considered by some, including Star Wars creator George Lucas, to be too similar to the original 1977 film.[27][28] In 2016, Abrams responded towards these complaints, stating: "What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new — to go backwards to go forwards".[29][b]
In September 2017, Abrams returned to direct and co-write Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with Chris Terrio.[35] The film was released in December 2019; it received mixed reviews from critics and fans,[36][37] while audience reactions were also mixed.[38][39]
Abrams served as executive producer and co-creator of a new Batman animated series titled Batman: Caped Crusader alongside Matt Reeves and Bruce Timm.[44] The production team created eleven episodes which premiered August 1, 2024.[45]
On May 8, 2024, it was announced that Abrams would write and direct an untitled new film, with Glen Powell in early talks to star in the project with Bad Robot signing on as the production company.[46][47] The company's five-year deal with Warner Bros. was also extended in August 2024, although it was expected to be less expensive than the previous agreement with future projects having significant budget cuts.[48]
In July 2002, Abrams wrote a script for a possible fifth Superman film entitled Superman: Flyby.[50]Brett Ratner and McG entered into talks to direct,[51] although Abrams tried to get the chance to direct his own script.[52] However, the project was finally cancelled in 2004 and instead Superman Returns was released in 2006.
On October 29, 2013, S., a novel written by Doug Dorst based on a concept by Abrams, was released.[64]
In 2019, Abrams made his debut as a writer for Marvel Comics, co-authoring the company's title Spider-Man from September of that year with his son Henry.[65] The first issue of the comic includes the death of Mary-Jane Watson, and a twelve-year time shift, with the series' protagonist being Ben Parker, son of Peter Parker and Mary Jane.[66]
Personal life
Abrams is married to public relations executive Katie McGrath and has three children.[5][67] His daughter, Gracie Abrams, is a pop singer-songwriter.[68] He resides in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California.[69][70] He is Jewish and his wife is Catholic, and he sometimes takes his children to religious services on Jewish holidays.[71]
In September 2024, Abrams signed a letter along with over 125 other Hollywood professionals urging California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign AI safety bill SB 1047.[74][75]
^Khan is an explicitly non-white character in the Star Trek canon, introduced as a Sikh and former ruler of much of eastern Eurasia.[19]
^In 2017, Abrams said he would not do more remakes or reboots, to instead focus on his own creations, saying: "You know, I do think that if you're telling a story that is not moving anything forward, not introducing anything that's relevant, that's not creating a new mythology or an extension of it, then a complete remake of something feels like a mistake."[30]
^Fleming, Michael; McNary, Dave (August 12, 2004). "Par girding up for 'War'". Variety. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
^"EW Gets the Stories Behind Those Goofy TV Production-Company Logos"Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Entertainment Weekly, December 7, 2001: "The title came to creator J.J. Abrams during a writers' meeting, and he recorded his children, Henry and Gracie (ages 2 and 3), saying the words into his Powerbook's microphone. 'That day in the office while editing,' says Abrams, 'I put together sound effects on my computer, burned a QuickTime movie on a CD, gave it to postproduction, and three days later it was on national television.'"
