Jim O'Rear

Jim O'Rear has been involved in the entertainment industry for over twenty five years, beginning his career on tour as The Youngest Professional Magician with David Copperfield, Harry Blackstone Jr., and The Great Tomsoni and opening for acts like Cheap Trick and John Anderson.

With his "magical" background and having been trained in New York at The American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, it was only natural that Jim move into the realm of film, television, and theatre where he has worked steadily as an actor, stuntman, and special make-up effects artist on such projects as Day Of The Dead, Star Trek 4, The Vampire Wars, Lethal Weapon 3, Creature Feature, Hayride Slaughter, Cop & ½, Psycho Beach Party, Evita, Little Shop Of Horrors, No Retreat No Surrender 3, Mortal Kombat: Conquest, and many more with actors including Martin Sheen, Burt Reynolds, Mel Gibson, Amanda Plummer, Maximillian Schell, Robert Englund, Jon Voight, Chris Sarandon, and others.

Wanting to get some of his own ideas onto the screen, Jim successfully moved into the area of screenwriting. Although competition is tough, he has written and sold a number of horror-related screenplays, including The House Of Pain (in development with Robert "Freddy" Englund, Gunnar "Leatherface" Hansen, Tom "Friday The 13th" Savini, Bill "ChopTop" Moseley, and Debbie "Scream Queen" Rochon), Hayride Slaughter, Hayride Slaughter 2, The Deadly Obligation, Vampyre Tales, Wolfsbayne, THE DEEPENING, and (currently screening in select areas) SCREAM FARM. Jim also placed third for Best Screenplay in TSA's screenwriting competition and is a current finalist in the Fade In Screenplay contest and Writer's Network competition.

Jim's horror writing has not stopped there. He has also contributed many articles to national publications, such as Scary Monsters Magazine, Haunted Attraction Magazine, Comics Interview, and Underground Entertainment, and has been recognized in Fangoria Magazine, Alternative Cinema, Fright Times, and Femme Fatale Magazine. Jim was also "immortalized" as a comic book character opposite Thor in an issue of MARVEL Comic's "What The…?" and will soon be appearing as himself (along with Ken Foree, Tom Savini, Debbie Rochon, Brinke Stevens, James Gunn, and more) in the fictional horror novel, BAD MOON RISING… the third installment of Jonathan Mayberry's GHOST ROAD BLUES trilogy…. and in ZOMBIE: CSU. In addition, Jim has written a paranormal book about real hauntings in the state of Tennessee for Schiffer Publishing (in stores now) titled TENNESSEE GHOSTS and is working on a followup book about Hollywood paranormal films.