An award-winning American actor, writer, director and producer, Johnathon Schaech was born on September 10, 1969. When he was 19, he left the University of Maryland to move to Los Angeles, where he fulfilled his need to find a defining life purpose. He began to study with acting legend Roy London for four years, where he gained his first major screen credit in Franco Zeffrelli’s film Storia Di Una Capinera (Sparrow) in 1993. In the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he trained in voice, dialect and posture, and also studied in New York with the Actor’s Studio. Johnathon Schaech was also a part of the Electric Theatre Company in LA.
Johnathon Schaech’s career in Hollywood began with the 1995 Gregg Araki film The Doom Generation. His fame widened with a plum role in Jocelyn Moorehouse’s How to Make an American Quilt with Winona Ryder. He was then cast in the following year by Tom Hanks as the lead rocker Jimmy Mattingly in That Thing You Do, opposite Gwynette Hush. He then starred in Independent films such as the comedies Splendor and Stephan Elliott’s Welcome to Woop Woop. Schaech was also given the title roles in Pen Densham’s Houdini, a made-for-cable movie, and Tom Fontana’s Judas. He also portrayed Byron Gruman in the 1998 movie Finding Graceland. Working with other great actors, he played Adam in How to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog with Kenneth Branagh in 2000. He also appeared opposite Heather Locklear in Nora Robert’s Angels Fall, where he won moviegoers’ hearts as the character Brody.
Johnathon and his long time friend Richard Chizmar paired up to form their film production company, Chesapeake Films, succeeding in adapting novels into screenplays. Some of these have been created for author Stephen King, Akiva Goldsman, SONY and MGM. Their first projects include an adaptation of Stephen King’s From a Buick 8 and Black House, Douglas Clegg’s The Hour Before Dark, and Ed Gorman’s The Poker Club and Road House 2: Last Call.