Jim O'Rear

Jim O'Rear has been involved in the entertainment industry for over twenty five years, beginning his career on tour as The Youngest Professional Magician with David Copperfield, Harry Blackstone Jr., and The Great Tomsoni and opening for acts like Cheap Trick and John Anderson.

With his "magical" background and having been trained in New York at The American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, it was only natural that Jim move into the realm of film, television, and theatre where he has worked steadily as an actor, stuntman, and special make-up effects artist on such projects as Day Of The Dead, Star Trek 4, The Vampire Wars, Lethal Weapon 3, The Dead Matter, Creature Feature, Fall Of The House Of Usher, Hayride Slaughter, Cop & ½, Psycho Beach Party, Evita, Little Shop Of Horrors, No Retreat No Surrender 3, Mortal Kombat: Conquest, and many more with actors including Martin Sheen, Burt Reynolds, Mel Gibson, Amanda Plummer, Maximillian Schell, Robert Englund, Kevin Sorbo, Kane Hodder, Jon Voight, Chris Sarandon, and others.

Wanting to get some of his own ideas onto the screen, Jim successfully moved into the area of screenwriting. Although competition is tough, he has written and sold a number of horror-related screenplays, including The House Of Pain (with Robert "Freddy" Englund, Gunnar "Leatherface" Hansen, Tom "Friday The 13th" Savini, Bill "ChopTop" Moseley, and Debbie "Scream Queen" Rochon), Hayride Slaughter, Hayride Slaughter 2, The Deadly Obligation, Vampyre Tales, Wolfsbayne, The Deepening, and Scream Farm.

Jim's horror writing has not stopped there. He has also contributed many articles to national publications, such as Scary Monsters Magazine, Haunted Attraction Magazine, Comics Interview, and Underground Entertainment, and has been recognized in Fangoria Magazine, Alternative Cinema, Fright Times, and Femme Fatale Magazine. Jim was also "immortalized" as a comic book character opposite Thor in an issue of MARVEL Comic's "What The…?" and appears as himself (along with Ken Foree, Tom Savini, Debbie Rochon, Brinke Stevens, James Gunn, and more) in the fictional horror novel, BAD MOON RISING… the third installment of Jonathan Mayberry's GHOST ROAD BLUES trilogy…. and in ZOMBIE: CSU. In addition, Jim has written a paranormal book about real hauntings in the state of Tennessee for Schiffer Publishing (in stores now) titled TENNESSEE GHOSTS and will have a followup book titled HOLLYWOOD'S PARANORMAL MOVIES in stores soon.

Currently, Jim continues to work as an actor and stuntman on several films per year, recently opposite Andrew "Wishmaster" Divoff (Lost, Airforce One), Tom Savini (Grindhouse, From Dusk Til Dawn), and Jason Carter (Babylon 5, Angel) in The Dead Matter, starring opposite Kane "Jason" Hodder (Hatchet, Friday The 13th) in Old Habits Die Hard, playing in Fall Of The House Of Usher with Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, Andromeda), John Billingsley (Star Trek: Enterprise, True Blood), and Bonite Friedericy (Chuck), acting opposite Linnea Quigley (Return Of The Living Dead) and Monique Dupree in Post Mortem America, appearing with William Forsythe (Devil’s Rejects, Halloween), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Danielle Harris (Halloween), and Robert Englund (Nightmare On Elm Street) in Underground Entertainment: The Movie, and is in development deals for three more of his screenplays. Jim is also the Midwest Case Manager for THE HOLLYWOOD GHOST HUNTERS (members include Kane Hodder, Adam Green, Danielle Harris, R.A. Mihailoff, & Chris Carnell) and goes on regular paranormal investigations with the group across the country.