John Platt

John Platt was born in Fresno, CA, son of businessman George Platt and homemaker Agnes Sterling McKinnon Platt, both recent immigrants from the UK. At 5 years old, along with his parents and 5 sisters, young John moved to Los Angeles, where he developed his love of movies, television and theater, and his passion for writing, while attending Corpus Christi Catholic School in Pacific Palisades...and watching endless double features at the Bay Theater next door to the school. He continued his artistic pursuits in La Jolla High School, and then at the University of California, Los Angeles. Platt began his showbiz career right out of college as a Video Game Writer/Designer at the San Diego company RDI, which created the hit laser disc games Dragon's Lair (1983) and Space Ace (1983). At the same time, he was writing screenplays, having written his first script while still in high school. Platt and co-writer Roy Langsdon were hired to write their first paid film script on Halloween, 1985...a talking dog movie for producer Chris Whittaker, called Police Dog. That film was never produced, but is believed to have inspired the later Jim Belushi hit K-9 (1989). The Police Dog assignment earned Platt & Langsdon their first agent, and the pair went on to write a number of low-budget feature films, including the cult-classic Lambada movie "The Forbidden Dance". Between screenplays, Platt also went into television, writing and producing shows for E! Entertainment Television and the Sci-Fi Channel. It was on a Sci-Fi project called "Masters of Fantasy" that Platt met later collaborator, producer Jon Kroll, and the two became fast friends. Kroll pulled Platt into reality TV in 2001, introducing him to producers Arnold Shapiro and Allison Grodner who hired Platt as Story Editor on CBS's soon-to-be-megahit "Big Brother". Platt then went on to help produce the second season of "Amazing Race", where he was the only story producer to circumnavigate the globe that season. Along with Kroll, and producer Scott Einziger, Platt helped devise and implement the story systems that are still used to make that series today. Platt was also highly influential in the 'celeb-reality' phenomenon, as a producer on the first season of "The Surreal Life" (and as Supervising Producer of season 2), a series that spawned more spin-offs than almost any other show in history. He became the Co-Executive Producer of "Big Brother" on season 7's All Stars edition, and continued to oversee story on that series through Season 11. During his years on "Big Brother", Platt was also Co-Executive Producer of ABC's highly controversial and critically acclaimed docu-series "Brat Camp", which was nominated for the Director's Guild of America's first-ever reality TV award. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune said "'Brat Camp' may be one of the few reality shows in the history of the genre capable of moving members of the audience to tears. Yes, it's that good!" While Michael Davis of TV Guide called the show "Riveting television." Platt also produced ABC's critically acclaimed reality comedy "The Family," which The New York Times television critic Virginia Heffernan named as one of her Top 10 Programs of the Year. Platt was also instrumental in developing CBS' ground-breaking, yet controversial series "Kid Nation", considered by many to be one of the best, most ambitious reality TV shows ever produced. Also a pioneer in online entertainment, Platt executive produced Hulu's first ever original series "If I Can Dream" with "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller, as well as Showrunning Bravo's Emmy Award® winning, multi-media dating series "The Singles Project". Platt was also the Showrunner of A&E's long-running house flipping hit "Flipping Vegas", and the critically-hailed FYI Series "Bride & Prejudice", among many others, and now has well over 300 hours of aired television to his credit. Platt lives in Sherman Oaks, CA, with his wife, schoolteacher Carrie Wong, and their identical-twin cats, Ruby Bean and Gustav Lorenzo.