J. Michael Straczynski

Joseph Michael Straczynski (born July 17, 1954) is an American filmmaker and comic book writer.

During the late 1970s, Straczynski became the on-air entertainment reviewer for KSDO-FM and wrote several radio plays before being hired as a scriptwriter for the radio drama Alien Worlds.

He produced his first television project in San Diego, Marty Sprinkle for KPBS-TV as well as worked on the XETV-TV project Disasterpiece Theatre.

He worked as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times as a special San Diego correspondent and worked for San Diego Magazine and The San Diego Reader, and wrote for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, the Los Angeles Reader, TV-Cable Week, and 'People' magazine.

Straczynski wrote The Complete Book of Scriptwriting for Writer's Digest.

They moved to Los Angeles in 1981 (where he still resides), married in 1983, separated in 1999, and they were divorced in 2001.

Published in 1982, the book is often used as a text in introductory screenwriting courses, and is in its third edition.

Straczynski had a voluntary vasectomy when he turned 21, and wrote about the experience in the January 28, 1983 edition of the Los Angeles Reader.

Straczynski began writing plays, having several produced at Southwestern College and San Diego State University before publishing his adaptation of Snow White with Performance Publishing.

Several other plays were produced around San Diego, including The Apprenticeship for the Marquis Public Theater.

Straczynski is a long-time participant in Usenet and other early computer networks, interacting with fans through various online forums (including GEnie, CompuServe, and America Online) since 1984.

He is credited as being the first TV producer to directly engage with fans on the Internet and to allow viewer viewpoints to influence the look and feel of his show (see Babylon 5's use of the Internet).

Two prominent areas where he had a presence were GEnie and the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.

Straczynski was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and is the son of Charles Straczynski, a manual laborer, and Evelyn Straczynski (née Pate).

He was raised in Newark, New Jersey; Kankakee, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Chula Vista, California, where he graduated from high school; and San Diego, California.

Straczynski's family religion was Catholic, and he has Polish ancestry.

His grandparents lived in the area which today belongs to Belarus and fled to the United States from the Russian Revolution; his father was born in the United States and has lived in Poland, Germany and Russia.

Straczynski is a graduate of Southwestern College and San Diego State University (SDSU), having earned an AA and later an honorary degree from Southwestern, where he was mentored by Professor Bill Virchis, and a BA with a double major in psychology and sociology (with minors in philosophy and literature) from San Diego State.

While at SDSU, he wrote for the student newspaper, The Daily Aztec at times penning so many articles that the paper was jokingly referred to as the "Daily Joe".

Straczynski met Kathryn M. Drennan while they were at SDSU.

He wrote a spec script in 1984 and sent it directly to Filmation.

Filmation purchased his script and several others, and hired him on staff.

During this time he became friends with Larry DiTillio, and when Filmation produced the He-Man spinoff She-Ra: Princess of Power, they worked as story editors on the show.

However, when Filmation refused to give them credit on-screen, both left, finding work with DIC on Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.

He spent five years from 1987 to 1992 co-hosting the Hour 25 radio talk show on KPFK-FM Los Angeles with Larry DiTillio.

During his tenure, he interviewed John Carpenter, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison and other writers, producers, actors and directors.

Sometime after his separation from Drennan, Straczynski entered into a relationship with Patricia Tallman, whom he had met when she was acting in his 1990s series Babylon 5.

He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series Babylon 5 (1993–1998) and its spinoff Crusade (1999), as well as the series Jeremiah (2002–2004) and Sense8 (2015–2018).

He is the executor of the estate of Harlan Ellison.

In 2000, Straczynski returned to radio drama with The City of Dreams for scifi.com.

Straczynski is the author of three horror novels—Demon Night, Othersyde, and Tribulations—and nearly twenty short stories, many of which are collected in two compilations—Tales from the New Twilight Zone and Straczynski Unplugged.

Straczynski was a fan of the cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

From 2001 to 2007, Straczynski wrote Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man, followed by runs on Thor and Fantastic Four.

He is the author of the Superman: Earth One trilogy of graphic novels, and he has written Superman, Wonder Woman, and Before Watchmen for DC Comics.

Straczynski is the creator and writer of several original comic book series such as Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, Dream Police, and Ten Grand through Joe's Comics.

Straczynski wrote the psychological drama film Changeling (2008) and was co-writer on the martial arts thriller Ninja Assassin (2009), was one of the key writers for (and had a cameo in) Marvel's Thor (2011), as well as the horror film Underworld: Awakening (2012), and the apocalyptic horror film World War Z (2013).

She served as CEO and executive producer of Studio JMS in partnership with him; both their relationship and partnership ended in 2013.

Straczynski has Asperger syndrome.

A prolific writer across a variety of media and former journalist, Straczynski is the author of the autobiography Becoming Superman (2019) for HarperVoyager, the novel Together We Will Go (2021) for Simon & Schuster, and Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer (2021) for Benbella Books.

In 2020 he was named Head of the Creative Council for the comics publishing company Artists, Writers and Artisans.