Jonathan Witte Stokes is a film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is also an entrepreneur who created ValueWiki which was acquired by

Wikia Fandom (formerly known as Wikicities and Wikia) is a wiki hosting service that hosts wikis mainly on entertainment topics (i.e., video games, TV series, movies, entertainers, etc.). The Privately held company, privately held for-profit Delaware ...

in 2010.

Education

Stokes graduated from the Weston High School and majored in Philosophy at the

Claremont Colleges The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private university, private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)� ...

. He then went on to study and perform improv and sketch comedy at the

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Ad ...

Improv Olympic iO, or iO Chicago, (formerly known as ImprovOlympic) is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago. The theater teaches and hosts performances of improvisational comedy. It was founded in 1981 by Del Close and Charna Halpern. ...

and

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theaters in Toronto and New York. Since its debut in 1959, it has b ...

Film career

Stokes has written scripts on assignment for actor-producers

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, rapper, and film producer. Known for his work in both Will Smith filmography, the screen and Will Smith discography, music industries, List of awards and nominations re ...

Jeremy Renner Jeremy Lee Renner (born January 7, 1971) is an American actor. He began his career by appearing in independent films such as ''Dahmer (film), Dahmer'' (2002) and ''Neo Ned'' (2005), then supporting roles in bigger films, such as ''S.W.A.T. (20 ...

, and

Hugh Jackman Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian and British actor, singer, and producer. Beginning in theatre and television, Jackman landed his breakthrough role as Wolverine in the ''X-Men'' film franchise and the Marvel Cinem ...

, as well as director-producer

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

. Stokes's script ''"Murders and Acquisitions"'' was purchased by

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

. Stokes' screenplay ''

El Gringo ''El Gringo'' (Translation: ''Bad Yankee'') is a 2012 American action film directed by Eduardo Rodríguez, produced by After Dark Films, written by Jonathan Stokes, and starring Scott Adkins, Christian Slater and Yvette Yates. Plot Following a ...

'' was produced by

Joel Silver Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer. Life and career Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive. His family is Jewish. He attended Columbia High School ...

and released in 2012. His script ''"Blood Mountain"'' was purchased with Academy Award winner

Lawrence Bender Lawrence Bender (born October 17, 1957) is an American film producer. Throughout his career, Bender-produced films have received 36 Academy Award nominations, resulting in eight wins. Bender rose to fame by producing '' Reservoir Dogs'' in 1992 ...

producing, two time Academy Award nominee

Sergei Bodrov Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov ( rus, Серге́й Влади́мирович Бодро́в, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej bɐˈdrof; born 28 June 1948) is a Russian film director, screenwriter, and producer. In 2003 he was the president of the jury at the ...

attached to direct, and

Benedict Cumberbatch Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Benedict Cumberbatch, various accolades, including a BAFTA TV Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurenc ...

attached to star. In 2020, Stokes's script ''"Murder in the White House"'' was purchased by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

with

Neal Moritz Neal H. Moritz (born June 6, 1959) is an American film producer and founder of Original Film. He has produced over 70 major motion pictures which have grossed a total of over $12 billion worldwide as of 2021. He is best known for the ''Fast & Fu ...

producing. In 2021, Stokes sold his script ''"The Vampire Asset"'' to Code Entertainment. Stokes is the author of the ''Addison Cooke'' series, published by

Philomel Books Philomel Books is a children's literature imprint of Penguin Books USA. The imprint was founded by Ann Beneduce, who was succeeded as publisher by Patricia Lee Gauch. Philomel publishes the series of children's books '' The Ranger's Apprentic ...

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

, and ''The Thrifty Guide to the Past'' series, published by

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

, also at Penguin. Stokes is the only screenwriter to have five screenplays featured on the

Black List Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

, an annual survey of Hollywood executives' favorite screenplays. Stokes wrote and directed '' The Last Hurrah'' starring Valerie Azlynn, Zack Bennett,

Kate Micucci Kate Micucci ( ; born March 31, 1980) is an American actress, comedian, and musician who is half of the musical comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates with Riki Lindhome. Some of her roles include Stephanie Gooch in '' Scrubs'', Ally in '' 'Til Death' ...

, Ravi Patel, and

Randy Wayne Randy Wayne Frederick (born August 7, 1981) is an American actor. Life and career Wayne was born and raised in Moore, Oklahoma. He attended Moore High School and Campbellsville University. He appeared on the 2002 season of the British realit ...

, released in 2010. The movie is filmed in one continuous shot, and is considered representative of the

mumblecore Mumblecore is a subgenre of independent film characterized by naturalistic acting and (sometimes improvised) dialogue, low budgets, an emphasis on dialogue over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of young adults. Filmmakers associ ...

film movement in its improvisational feel and focus on dialog and

Generation Y Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990 ...

relationships. Stokes wrote and directed ''

Wildcat The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while th ...

'' starring

Georgina Campbell Georgina Alice Campbell (born 12 June 1992) is an English actress. She won the 2015 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for '' Murdered by My Boyfriend'' (2014), making her the first non-white actress to win that award. Her other television credits ...

, Mido Hamada, and

Luke Benward Luke Aaron Benward (born May 12, 1995) is an American actor and singer. He is most known for his Disney Channel roles as Charlie in ''Minutemen'' (2008), Ryan in '' Girl vs. Monster'' (2012), and Will in '' Cloud 9'' (2014). He played the role ...

, which was distributed by

Saban Films Saban Capital Group LLC is an American investment company based in Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the ...

in 2021. Stokes also wrote and directed several short films, including ''Men, Interrupted'' (starring

Janina Gavankar Janina Zione Gavankar (; born November 29, 1980) is an American actress and musician. She is trained as a pianist, vocalist, and orchestral percussionist and majored in theatre at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her roles include Eva "Papi" ...

, Ravi Patel, Zack Bennett, and Jelynn Rodriguez), ''Wipe'' (starring

Kelly Perine Kelly Perine (born March 23, 1969) is an American television actor, writer, director, producer, and comedian. Early life and education Perine attended Lake Forest Academy, near Chicago, Illinois, where he studied stage acting. He spent his unde ...

), ''Air'' (starring Greg Fellows and

Brandon Scott Brandon Maurice Scott (born April 8, 1984) is an American politician serving as the Mayor of Baltimore, mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, since 2020. He was the president of the Baltimore City Council from 2019 to 2020, having been elected to the p ...

), and "Victory" (starring

and

Kit Pongetti Kit Pongetti is an American actress, musician, writer and director, known for several acting roles, including playing Lady, the wife of the Janitor, in the show '' Scrubs'' and also for her role as Marta Trundel in ''iCarly''. Early life Ponget ...

Entrepreneur

Jonathan Stokes co-created ValueWiki.com in 2006 along with high school friend Zach Greenberger. The finance wiki, a "Wikipedia for stocks," grew to over 200,000 articles covering stocks and funds from 10 world wide stock exchanges before being acquired by

in 2010 in a cash-and-stock deal.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Jonathan W. Film producers from California American male screenwriters Living people Writers from Manhattan Pitzer College alumni Film directors from New York City Screenwriters from New York (state) Film producers from New York (state) Screenwriters from California Year of birth missing (living people)