J. Michael Straczynski credits include five produced movies in six years: "Changeling" for director Clint Eastwood, "Ninja Assassin" for the Wachowkis, "Thor" for Kenneth Branagh, "Underworld: Awakening," and "World War Z" for Paramount and Brad Pitt. At present, he is writing the feature film adaptation of Valiant Comics "Shadowman."
In television, Straczynski has written over 300 produced episodes and six TV movies, creating and produced such series as "Babylon 5," for which he also directed a two-hour TV movie, "Crusade" and "Jeremiah." His other credits include "Murder, She Wrote" and "The Twilight Zone." He has written over 300 published comics for Marvel, DC and Image, including "The Amazing Spider-Man" for seven years, followed by "Thor," "The Fantastic Four," and others. His "Superman: Earth One" hardcover graphic novel hit the NY Times Graphic Novels Bestseller List for thirty-two weeks and spawned a recently published sequel. He is currently writing volume three of that series and writing two new series for Dark Horse and Dynamic Comics.
In 2013, Straczynski launched Studio JMS, his own mini-studio/imprint. Through Studio JMS he is producing, writing and directing "Sense8" for Georgeville Television and Netflix in collaboration with the Wachowskis, and will soon be directing his first feature film, "The Flickering Light," financed by Motion Picture Capital.
Born in New Jersey, Straczynski's family moved twenty-one times in his first eighteen years, which is how he developed a love of words and writing: the neighborhoods were always changing, but the books in the library were always the same. He received degrees in Psychology and Sociology from San Diego State University, and was a reporter for many years, publishing over 500 articles in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Writer's Digest, Penthouse, Twilight Zone Magazine, and TIME, Inc. He has also written a book on scriptwriting, three published novels and multiple published short stories.
In addition to being nominated for a British Academy Award for his screenplay for "Changeling," Straczynski has received the Eisner Award, the Inkpot Lifetime Achievement Award, the Saturn Award, the Hugo award (twice), the Ray Bradbury Award, the Christopher Foundation Award, the Space Frontier Foundation Award and the E Pluribus Unum Award from the American Cinema Foundation, in addition to a dozen other awards, including two Emmy's for Babylon 5.
Paramount Pictures
