John Drimmer is a writer and producer. He is also a practicing psychologist. He is the founder of Wisdomify.com, the wisdom-sharing website.
Early life, family and education
John Drimmer was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. He is the son of author and editor Frederick Drimmer.
He was educated at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
and
Hamilton College
Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...
, where he studied with writer-in-residence Alex Haley, author of ''Roots''. He earned a
Psy.D
The Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D. or D.Psych.) is a professional doctoral degree intended to prepare graduates for careers that apply scientific knowledge of psychology and deliver empirically based service to individuals, groups and organization ...
, a doctorate degree in psychology, from Ryokan College in 2003.
Career
Drimmer has worked as a journalist, director and writer of both fictional and documentary films as well as the executive producer of series for New York Times-Discovery, National Geographic, A&E and
History Channel
History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
Aurora Award
The Aurora Awards (french: Prix Aurora-Boréal) are a set of primarily literary awards given annually for the best Canadian science fiction or fantasy professional and fan works and achievements from the previous year."Literary glow of Auroras lure ...
.
Drimmer started his career making non-fiction films for
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
, where he was the youngest person to ever win the DuPont-Columbia Award for his film ''Towers of Frustration'', about life inside a high-rise ghetto in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.60 Minutes'' where he was a producer.
He wrote the story for the feature film '' Iceman'' for
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
, produced by
Norman Jewison
Norman Frederick Jewison (born July 21, 1926) is a retired Canadian film and television director, producer, and founder of the Canadian Film Centre.
He has directed numerous feature films and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best ...
and directed by
Fred Schepisi
Frederic Alan Schepisi ( ; Kael, Pauline (1984). '' Taking It All In''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. p. 55. born 26 December 1939) is an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter. His credits include '' The Chant of Jimmie ...
; ''Hero in the Family'', which he wrote and produced for ABC/Disney; ''Battle in the Erogenous Zone'', which he wrote, directed and produced for Showtime; and ''The Tear Collector'', which he directed and wrote for ''
Tales from the Darkside
''Tales from the Darkside'' is an American anthology horror TV series created by George A. Romero. Debuting in October 1983 with a pilot episode and then being picked up for syndication in September 1984, the show ran for 4 seasons through Ju ...
''.
He later became the executive producer of many series for television. He also ran the non-fiction TV division of Hearst Publishing and was executive producer at
GRB Entertainment
GRB Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as GRB Studios since October 9, 2018) is an American film and television production company and distributor, known for producing and distributing reality and documentary programs such as '' Intervention'' ...
.
He splits his time between independent media projects and his private practice as a psychologist. He also teaches positive psychology to the medical students at the
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine—known as the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM)—is an accredited medical school located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The school was renamed in 2001 in h ...
and founded the Positive Psychology Center of Los Angeles. He also hosts a
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
, ''The Wise Council Podcast''.
Personal life
Drimmer is married. He and his wife, Barbara, reside in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...
1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
**Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal enter ...
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
: ''
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...
'' (TV)
*
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
Untold Stories of the ER
''Untold Stories of the E.R.'' is an American docudrama television series which airs on TLC and Discovery Life.
In this program, real-life emergency department doctors discuss their most bizarre and puzzling cases. Typically these involve medic ...
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
**Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal enter ...
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
: ''
Tales from the Darkside
''Tales from the Darkside'' is an American anthology horror TV series created by George A. Romero. Debuting in October 1983 with a pilot episode and then being picked up for syndication in September 1984, the show ran for 4 seasons through Ju ...
'' (TV series)
* 1992 : ''Battle in the Erogenous Zone'' (TV)