J.J. Abrams

While he was writing scripts in college, he used the Alvin Sargent screenplay to Ordinary People (1980) as a guide.

In 2011, during an interview on the NPR program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," writer/director J. J. Abrams told a story about getting to attend a very early rough-cut screening of Escape from New York (1981) with his father, Gerald W. Abrams, a movie producer (who knew that his then-15-year-old son was a big John Carpenter fan). Abrams told Gross that during the discussion afterward, Gerald suggested cutting an opening sequence in which Snake tries to rob a bank and is caught (on the principle that Snake seems like a more imposing, mythic, tougher character if you don't see him defeated right away), and young J. J. suggested making it clearer that Adrienne Barbeau's character Maggie dies at the end. Both suggestions were followed in the final cut: the opening scene was deleted, and a shot was added showing Maggie's body.

Graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1988.

Sold his script for Forever Young (1992) for 2 million dollars.

J.J. Abrams has been involved with several projects that avail themselves of the social theory called the "Milgram Small World Phenomenon," after the social psychologist Stanley Milgram, who conducted acquaintance path experiments. John Guare's play Six Degrees of Separation (1993) (and its subsequent film adaptation) is heavily responsible for introducing to the pop culture at large the notion that everyone in the world is separated by only six other people; Abrams had a small acting role in the film version. Abrams went on to produce "Six Degrees" (2006), a TV show with a premise predicated on this theory, and "Lost" (2004), a TV show in which seemingly unconnected and disparate characters often end up having hidden or unknown links to each other.

Has three children with wife Katie: Henry (b. 1998), Gracie (b. 1999) and August (b. 11 January, 2006).

Gave "Alias" (2001) star Jennifer Garner a pink bicycle for her birthday. She would often greet the production crew by ringing the bells on the bike's handlebars.

He has discussed wanting to be more involved in the 3rd season of "Lost" (2004) (interminently with his film schedule) because he hasn't been directly involved in the show since the 6th episode of the first season.

Is a fan of Howard Stern, who is also a fan of of his work (particularly "Lost" (2004) and Star Trek (2009)) and personally called Artie Lange through his agent to congratulate him on his being hired to replace 'Jackie Martling' ("The Joke Man") as a sidekick in 2002. Also gave Stern's daughters a tour of the "Felicity" (1998) set.

Named one of Fade In Magazine's "100 People in Hollywood You Need to Know" in 2005

He says he got the job directing Mission: Impossible III (2006) after Tom Cruise watched early episodes of "Alias" (2001) on DVD and loved them. The two started hanging out together and Cruise offered him the job.

His debut film Mission: Impossible III (2006) was the most expensive film ever made by a first-time director until 'Tron: Legacy' was directed by 'Joseph Koisninski', which cost nearly 20$ million more then MI3.

2007 - Ranked #29 on EW's The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.

In 2007, Forbes Magazine estimated his earnings for the year at $17 million.