J. Neil Schulman

J. Neil Schulman is a writer, publisher, radio personality, composer, prophet, filmmaker, and actor. He was born in Forest Hills, New York, the only son of Julius Schulman, a renowned concert violinist who won CBS's Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts competition, and to Betty Schulman, a painter. He grew up in New York City, New Orleans, and Massachusetts, and beginning in high school, regularly sold sports and event photography to newspapers, and once had his art photography submitted to New York's Museum of Modern Art. After dropping out of City University of New York, he pursued a career as a writer, making his first professional sale to the New York Times Book Review in 1973. Schulman's journalism includes humor sold to Reader's Digest and the Los Angeles Times Book Review, op-eds in the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register, and feature articles in magazines as diverse as National Review and Cult Movies. In 1975 he moved to Southern California, living in Long Beach, Hollywood, and Venice, and settling in Culver City. In 1985 he married singer/composer Kate O'Neal, and lived bi-coastally between California and New York for five years. Their daughter, Soleil O'Neal-Schulman, was born in Culver City in 1991. They divorced the following year. During these years he worked as an assistant to a Hollywood talent agent, as a first reader for a New York book publisher, as a literary agent, and as a raunchy humor magazine editor. He produced classical music for Texas cable television, traveled as a researcher for a Pennsylvania public television station, taught a graduate course in media studies for the New School in New York City, and produced original radio drama for the Pacifica Radio Network. In 1989 he founded the first of two book publishing companies which made bestselling authors' books available either by on-demand print or for download, and he's been called a pioneer of the eBook by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Esquire. In 1990 he began a career as a radio talk show host. He's the author of ten books including three novels. His career as an author began with his novel Alongside Night published in 1979, which won endorsements from Anthony Burgess and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, and went on to win the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. His 1983 novel, The Rainbow Cadenza, also won the Prometheus Award, and inspired a Laserium show. His latest novel, Escape from Heaven, was a finalist for the Prometheus Award, and is currently being developed as a feature film. Other books include a collection of short stories, a book which concludes that both of O.J. Simpson trials failed to reach the truth, a widely cited study of gun-control laws, and an omnibus collection including an essay on the meaning of life and eight of his poems. His latest book tells of his conversion from lifelong atheism to being a firm believer in God who still distances himself from religion. His screen-writing career began with an original feature-film treatment sold to Herb Jaffe's Vista Films in 1983, and in 1986 he sold two original scripts to CBS's revived Twilight Zone, one of which, "Profile in Silver," was produced. The outlines and first two drafts of that teleplay are included in his 1999 book, Profile In Silver And Other Screenwritings. The book also includes the bulk of Schulman's early works written for the screen as well as commentaries about his adventures and trials in the film and TV industries. In 2005 he began a producing partnership with Nichelle Nichols, and produced, wrote, and directed his first feature film, Lady Magdalene's.