Jon Felson grew up in the redwoods of Marin County, where campfire stories at his parents’ summer camp lit his early imagination. On movie nights, he manned the camp’s battered 35mm projector, wearing out prints of Jaws and Planet of the Apes. His own Super 8 movies soon followed, equal parts ambition and glue —inspired by Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, and Spielberg. By high school, he was creating award-winning shorts, which ultimately led to a degree from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Before moving into features, Felson founded Stone Soup Productions, a Los Angeles shop that created music videos and national tv commercials, including Teva’s award-winning “Free Your Feet” campaign, projects

for Capitol and Interscope Records, Caves of Fear, an interactive film for Atari/Warner Bros., and a 360-degree Circle-Vision film for Iwerks. Other extensive production experience includes special effects work on: The Abyss, The Hunt for Red October and Fat Man & Little Boy. He produced short films starring Chris Elliot for the David Letterman Show and directed second unit on the feature film Home of the Giants, starring Haley Joel Osment.

His first screenplay, King Bee – based a T.C. Boyle short story, led to studio assignments, adapting H.G. Wells’ Food of the Gods for Universal, Dark Side of the Moon for Red Wagon/Doug Wick. He also penned No Quarter Given, the true-life saga of the 1924 U.S. Olympic rugby team and The Watchers, inspired by the controversial experiments of Dr. John Lilly.

Felson co-created, In a Heartbeat, a Disney Channel Original Series inspired by real-life high school EMT squads, directed by Shawn Levy. Other credits include the web series Powerhouse and his short film, PHX. He studied acting and directing with Judith Weston and Lesly Kahn and completed UCLA’s Professional Producing Program.

Currently, Felson has several projects headed toward production, Julia Butterfly, for Apple TV and Hyper Object, producers Adam McKay, Kevin Messick and Jena King, directed by Sally El Hosaini and The Forgotten 500, for Gulfstream Pictures, producers Bill Bindley and Mike Karz.

This fall, he’s directing his original screenplay, The First Ghost, starring Morgan Freeman.

He lives in Santa Monica with his wife and two children.