Raised in Boston and New York City, John has been passionately interested in both film and architecture.  Early set designs for a local musical theater group landed him a job at The Architects Collaborative — the Cambridge, Massachusetts firm started by Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus.  John worked at this firm during his summers while attending Phillips Academy, Andover, where he designed and directed many theatrical productions.  He was awarded several grants from the Trustees to design a series of buildings for the school.  His designs were used as the basis for implementing multi-million-dollar fund raising campaigns resulting in new theater and library buildings.

He attended Harvard College, where he continued exploring these dual interests, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Film and Architecture.  He directed and designed numerous theatrical productions for every performance venue on campus, including the Loeb Drama Center.  Models of his set designs are in the permanent collection of the Harvard Theatre Library.

After graduating from college, John moved to Los Angeles to pursue a film career.  He initially worked as a Feature Film Development Executive for producers at Universal Studios and Warner Brothers.  For several years, he was Director of Development for producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli where he was responsible for the creative development of the James Bond film Goldeneye, living in London during the production of the film.  He then turned to writing — selling original screenplays and television pilots to 20th Century Fox, New Line Cinema, ABC Studios, DreamWorks Animation, and Amazon Studios.  He has several produced feature film credits, among them Fool’s Gold, starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.

During all of this, he’s managed to keep an active interest in architecture.   Among his many projects: he has designed the renovation of an historically significant estate on the Main Line, outside Philadelphia; the maisonette apartment at 555 Park Avenue; the Rockefeller duplex penthouse at 810 Fifth Avenue; the headquarters for the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (in association with Peter Pennoyer, whose firm John contracted to provide the working drawings); an historic Maurice Fatio house in Palm Beach (the renovation of which won the Ballinger Award for Historic Preservation); houses in Bel Air, the Hollywood Hills, and Hancock Park, California; and on Fishers Island, New York.  He recently designed a new “historical” house on Sophia Loren’s former estate in Hidden Valley, California.  This house was featured in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix show The Politician as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Santa Barbara estate.

As a screenwriter, he has significant writing and production experience and $140 million has been spent producing the films he’s authored or co-authored.  As an architect, he specializes in historical styles for modern living and has designed and built over 75,000 square feet of high-end institutional and residential projects.  His architectural projects have generated over a $100 million in value.  He has strong relationships with multiple contractors, engineers and tradesmen on either coast and can provide all of the design and construction management services of a large architectural firm with greater efficiency and responsiveness.

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, French actress Camille Natta, and their two children.