James Wong (born April 20, 1959) is an American television producer, writer, and retired film director.
Wong is best known for co-writing episodes of the Fox science fiction supernatural drama series The X-Files with his partner, Glen Morgan.
Morgan and Wong are founders of the Hard Eight Pictures and co-created Space: Above and Beyond.
Wong also directed the films Final Destination, The One, and Dragonball Evolution.
Wong was born in Hong Kong.
At age ten, he moved to the United States along with his family, settling in San Diego, California.
During his youth, he met his future writing partner Glen Morgan at El Cajon Valley High School.
Later on, he went to Loyola Marymount University, joining a comedy improvisational group.
Originally seeking a major in engineering, he later switched to a film major after seeing Apocalypse Now at the Cinerama Dome.
After graduating, he landed a job as an assistant to Sandy Howard.
During this time, both Wong and Morgan wrote screenplays, eventually having one produced.
James Wong is married to Teena Wong, and they have three children.
With Morgan, he co-wrote The Boys Next Door.
After this Wong became a story editor on the short-lived ABC crime drama Knightwatch.
Later, with Morgan, Wong would work on many Stephen J. Cannell productions, including Wiseguy (as supervising producer), The Commish (as supervising producer), and as a staff writer and story editor for 21 Jump Street and its spinoff, Booker.
1993
Wong and Morgan began working with Chris Carter in 1993 on the science fiction/drama The X-Files, about two FBI agents investigating the paranormal, filmed in Vancouver.
1994
As part of The X-Files main production team in 1994–1995, Wong shared the show's first Golden Globe Award win for Best Dramatic Series, and also shared its second win in the 1996–1997 season.
1995
In 1995, Wong and Morgan were offered an $8 million, four-year contract deal with 20th Century Fox Television to write and produce television series.
As part of this deal, Morgan and Wong went on to create the short-lived series Space: Above and Beyond.
During 1995, both Wong and Morgan were hired by producer Joel Silver to write the third intended Tales from the Crypt movie called Body Count.
Their script was loved by executive producers Silver, Richard Donner, Walter Hill, David Giler and Robert Zemeckis but the main producers Gilbert Adler and A L Katz hated it and Universal thought it would be too expensive to shoot.
1996
They returned to The X-Files briefly in its fourth season (1996–1997) when they wrote the horror episode Home.
Wong also made his television directing debut with the conspiracy-themed "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", written by Morgan.
Wong and Morgan also took on production and writing duties for Carter's Millennium.
Later, they would go on to executive produce the short-lived NBC paranormal series The Others.
1998
(The X-Files would go on to become the first series to win a Golden Globe three times.) Wong was honoured as his name was used as character in The X-Files game released on the PS1 in 1998.
2000
In 2000, Wong directed Final Destination, which was originally conceived as an X-Files episode by writer Jeffrey Reddick and was then reworked by Wong and Morgan.
2001
Wong followed the directorial debut with The One (2001), an action film starring Jet Li, and with more horror films, including Willard (2003), directed by Glen Morgan and starring Crispin Glover, and a second sequel, Final Destination 3 (2006), directed by Wong.
2006
In late 2006, Wong and Morgan's remake of Black Christmas was released; the script was by Wong and Morgan and the film was directed by Morgan.
2009
In 2009, Wong directed the live-action film adaptation of the anime and manga media franchise Dragon Ball.
It was poorly received by both critics and audiences.
2011
Since 2011, Wong has been working with Ryan Murphy as an executive producer on American Horror Story.
2015
In 2015, Wong wrote and directed one episode, Founder's Mutation, for the tenth season of The X-Files.
2017
He returned again in 2017 for The X-Files season eleven to write and direct the episode Ghouli, and to direct the episode Nothing Lasts Forever.
As part of the initial production crew on The X-Files, Wong was among the most influential four writer-producers who worked closely with X-Files creator Chris Carter to define the characters, plots and aesthetics of the new series (the others were Glen Morgan, Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa).
Wong was responsible with his longtime writing partner Glen Morgan for introducing a number of elements that defined The X-Files throughout its run.
Notable episodes co-written by Wong:
In his directorial debut, Wong also directed the episode "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", for which he received an Emmy nomination, also becoming the first member of the series's regular writing staff (after Chris Carter) to direct an episode, as well as the only person of color to ever direct an X-Files episode.
Wong's Emmy nomination for directing "Musings" made him the first Asian American to receive an Emmy nomination for directing anything on television; at that time, no Asian American and no person of Chinese descent had yet been nominated for an Oscar for directing a film.
Wong was also, along with Chris Carter (nominated a year later) the only director of an X-Files episode to be Emmy nominated for his work.
