Background
Abrams was born and raised in North Carolina. His father was Richard Abrams, a Chief Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force, who did three tours of duty in Vietnam and received the Bronze Star. His mother Pegge Abrams, was a Civil Rights activist and Director of the Language Laboratory at Duke University.
Abrams grew up in Durham where he starred in stage plays at Northern High School and the Duke University Summer Theater, including productions of Flowers for Algernon, One Flew Over The Cuckoo"s Nest, The Lion in Winter, Dirty Linen and the New-Foundation-Land, and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Education
He continued his education at Guilford College in Greensboro, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and studied abroad in London and Munich. After completing his undergraduate degree Abrams studied theater in the Masters program at Northwestern University where he starred in productions of The Wakefield Mystery Cycle and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.
Career
At Guilford, Abrams acted in and directed a number of plays, including Tartuffe, Look Homeward Angel, Endgame, The Taming of the Shrew, Number Exit, and Six Characters in Search of an Author. Abrams completed his education at the Columbia University Film Division where he received an Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting and Directing, and was mentored by Frank Daniel, Miloš Forman, Annette Insdorf and Brad Dourif. Abrams has sold numerous feature film screenplays in varied genres including western Have Gun Will Travel for Warner Brothers, historic adventure The Captain"s Wife for Fox 2000, and The American Princess for New Lincolnshire Cinema, The Battle of Ono for John Woo and Terence Cheng, horror film Cave for Working Title, sci-fi action Metal Machine for producer James Jacks at Universal, kids action comedy Gameboy Charlie for Bruckheimer producer, Chad Oman, and action film Smokin" Aces 2: Assassins" Ball (2011) for Universal Pictures, among others
Abrams first taught film history at the College of Staten Island, then later history and aesthetics at Columbia University.
He has conducted more than 50 screenwriting seminars world wide and has worked in Europe for the last 25 years. He is currently a tenured professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles where he teaches screenwriting and directing.
