Abrams, Jeffrey 1966- (J. J. Abrams)

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ABRAMS, Jeffrey 1966-
(J. J. Abrams)

PERSONAL:

Born 1966, in New York, NY; son of Gerald W. Adams (a producer); married Joya Tillem, November 24, 2000; children: Max, Madelaine.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Endeavor, 9701 Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

CAREER:

Producer, director, actor, and screenwriter. Producer of films, including (with others) Regarding Henry, Paramount, 1991; (executive producer) Forever Young, Warner Bros., 1992; The Pallbearer, Miramax, 1996; (under the name J. J. Abrams) The Suburbans, Ignite Entertainment/Motion Picture Corporation of America, 1999; and (under the name J. J. Abrams) Joy Ride (also known as Road Kill), Twentieth Century-Fox, 2001. Actor in films, including (as delivery boy) Regarding Henry, Paramount, 1991; (as Doug) Six Degrees of Separation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1993; (as second video photographer) Diabolique, Warner Bros., 1996; (under the name J. J. Abrams; as rock journalist) The Suburbans, Ignite Entertainment/Motion Picture Corporation of America, 1999.

Worked on television series under the name J. J. Abrams, including (as creator, executive producer, director of some episodes, and theme song performer and composer) Felicity, Warner Bros., Inc. (WB), 1998-2002; and (as creator, executive producer, title designer, director of some episodes, and composer of main theme and other music) Alias, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (ABC), 2001—. Composer of music and creator of sound effects for the film Night-beast, 1983.

WRITINGS:

SCREENPLAYS

Regarding Henry, Paramount, 1991.

Forever Young, Warner Bros., 1992.

(With Jill Mazursky) Gone Fishin', Buena Vista, 1997.

(As J. J. Abrams; with others) Armageddon, Buena Vista, 1998.

(As J. J. Abrams; with Clay Tarver) Joy Ride (also known as Road Kill), Twentieth Century-Fox, 2001.

Also author of, with Jill Mazursky, Taking Care of Business (also known as Filofax), 1991.

TELEVISION SERIES; AS J. J. ABRAMS; WITH OTHERS

Felicity, WB, 1998-2002.

Alias, ABC, 2001—.

OTHER

With Breen Frazier, wrote the Alias video game, 2003.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A screenplay for a new Superman movie.

SIDELIGHTS:

Although he has been a screenwriter on several successful films, including Forever Young and Armageddon, Jeffrey Abrams is probably best known for creating two hit television series, Felicity and Alias. Although both shows feature young-adult women struggling to figure out who they are, the similarities end there. Felicity stars former Mouseketeer Keri Russell as Felicity Porter, a curly-haired, insecure young lady who follows her high school crush, Ben, to New York when he goes to college there. Alas, despite writing a seemingly loving note in Felicity's yearbook, Ben actually has no romantic interest in her. Now Felicity is far from home, forced to define herself and decide what she wants to do with her life. Variety reviewer Ray Richmond noted the similarities between Felicity and other series about confused young women, including Ally McBeal and My So-Called Life, but continued, "shows that are this shamelessly imitative aren't supposed to be this good." Felicity "astutely transmits the conflicting blend of giddy anticipation and neurotic dread that defines the early college experience," Richmond concluded. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Ken Tucker attributed much of the show's success to its "vivid, quick-witted ensemble" cast, but noted that "cocreators J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves have known just what to fine-tune about the show" to keep it successful after the first season.

Abrams described his next series, Alias, as "very much a comic book come to life" to an Entertainment Weekly weekly interviewer. The show stars Felicity alumna Jennifer Garner as Sidney Bristow, a graduate student who is also an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Or at least she thinks she is a CIA agent; after her fiancé is murdered in the series premiere, Bristow discovers that she has actually been working for a rogue intelligence agency and CIA rival, SD-6. She therefore goes to the real CIA and becomes a double agent. Her always-distant father is also a CIA/SD-6 double agent, she soon discovers. "On a human level," the growing relationship between Bristow and her father "is the most interesting thing" in the show, thought Variety reviewer Phil Gallo. There are also other plot lines of human interest in the show, including Bristow's discovery of what really happened to her mother and her budding romance with fellow agent Vaughn. Although the show is driven by its high-action stories, "having strong, balanced characters is important to me," Abrams told Daily Variety's Josef Adalian. "Identifying with a character and feeling there's a struggle worth telling is important."

Besides being a screenwriter, director, and producer, Abrams is also a composer who writes much of the music for his shows, mostly notably the techno-beats used in Alias. "Anyone who knows me says that I create TV shows so that I can create themes to them," Abrams joked in his Entertainment Weekly interview. "It's very rare to have someone who's good at virtually every element of the business, but that's what J. J. is," ABC Entertainment Television Group chairman Lloyd Braun told Adalian. "He's the whole package in every respect."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Cosmopolitan, February, 1993, Guy Flatley, review of Forever Young, p. 14.

Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), May 3, 1996, Dann Gire, review of The Pallbearer, p. 22; June 4, 1997, Dann Gire, review of Gone Fishin', p. 9.

Daily Variety, August 30, 2002, Josef Adalian, interview with Abrams, pp. 15-16.

Electronic Media, June 3, 2002, Leslie Ryan, interview with Abrams, p. 12.

Entertainment Weekly, June 13, 1997, Lisa Schwarzbaum, review of Gone Fishin', p. 42; September 11, 1998, review of Felicity, p. 48; September 10, 1999, review of Felicity, p. 114; October 15, 1999, Ken Tucker, review of Felicity, p. 59; October 19, 2001, interview with Abrams, p. 85; November 23, 2001, Ken Tucker, review of Alias, p. 30; February 7, 2003, Dan Snierson, review of Alias, p. 6.

Hollywood Reporter, September 13, 2001, Michael Rechtshaffen, review of Joy Ride, p. 9; October 4, 2002, "Scribe Abrams Defuses Kryptonite Web Reviews," p. 8; June 25, 2003, Nellie Andreeva, "Abrams on Hunt in ABC Series," pp. 1-2; September 3, 2003, Chris Marlow, interview with Abrams, p. 10.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June, 1992, Kathi Maio, review of Forever Young, pp. 58-61.

Newsweek, December 28, 1992, David Ansen, review of Forever Young, p. 58.

New York Times, December 16, 1992, Vincent Canby, review of Forever Young, p. B3, C17; October 5, 2001, A. O. Scott, review of Joy Ride, pp. E21, E23; November 18, 2001, Joyce Millman, review of Alias, p. AR34; September 29, 2002, Steve Vineberg, review of Alias, p. AR34.

Premiere, June, 1991, Rachel Abramowitz and John H. Richardson, review of Regarding Henry, pp. 58-59; October, 1992, review of Forever Young, pp. 99-100.

Record (Bergen County, NJ), May 3, 1996, Roger Ebert, review of The Pallbearer, p. 41; June 4, 1997, Gene Seymour, review of Gone Fishin', p. Y7.

Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), Lawrence Van Gelder, review of Gone Fishin', p. 11D.

Rolling Stone, January 7, 1993, Peter Travers, review of Forever Young, p. 51.

Seattle Times, May 31, 1997, review of Gone Fishin', p. F3.

Time, December 28, 1992, Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss, review of Forever Young, p. 65.

TV Guide, September 12, 1998, Matt Roush, review of Felicity, pp. 44-45.

Variety, December 7, 1992, Brian Lowry, review of Forever Young, p. 71; September 28, 1998, Ray Richmond, review of Felicity, p. 86; September 10, 2001, review of Joy Ride, p. 60; October 1, 2001, Phil Gallo, review of Alias, p. 46.

Wall Street Journal, October 5, 1998, Barbara D. Phillips, review of Felicity, p. A28.