Thom Parham

Thom Parham was born as Thomas David Parham III. He has a bachelor of science degree from the Naval Academy and a master's degree and PhD from Regents University. After graduating from Annapolis, Dr. Parham spent seven years on active duty, during which he qualified as a Surface Warfare Officer. He left the Navy to complete graduate studies in performing arts and communication studies. Dr. Parham worked at Paramount Pictures in the mid-90s as supervisor of publishing for the studio's licensing division and also worked on more than 100 episodes of broadcast television during that decade. He has written for the long-running CBS' drama JAG and the Family Channel sit-com Big Brother Jake and also served as on-location writers' assistant for the third season of Touched by an Angel. His teaching experience includes Biola University and Azusa Pacific University, where he created graduate and undergraduate Screenwriting degree programs and also served as founding chair for the Department of Cinematic Arts. Dr. Parham is widely published and has contributed chapters to the American Chemical Society's anthology Hollywood Chemistry: When Science Met Entertainment; Doing Good, Departing from Evil: Research Findings in the Twenty-First Century; The Gospel According to Super-Heroes: Religion and Popular Culture; and Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film, and Culture. His book Hailing Frequencies Open: Communication on Star Trek: The Next Generation was published by McFarland & Company in 2019. He is a 2015 Television Academy Faculty Fellow and received APU's 2013 Undergraduate Faculty Scholarly Achievement Award and Act One's 2007 Faculty Award. Dr. Parham's professional memberships include the Writers Guild of America, Popular Culture Association, and Television Academy.