Biographie
Tom Greene, born and raised in Los Angeles, has been engaged in the creative arts since childhood. He started making films in high school and earned several international awards. One of his films caught the attention of Universal Studio's Christopher Wood at a San Francisco festival, leading to its purchase for their Independent Film Series. Impressed by Tom, Wood and other studio executives allowed him to explore the studio lot, observing various TV and motion picture productions. Tom then occupied an abandoned office and began sending memos and notes to producers about their projects. This initiative led to mentorships with producers William Sackheim and Harve Bennett, as well as award-winning writer-director Joel Oliansky. After presenting Sackheim and Oliansky with several stories for their Emmy Award-winning series THE LAW, Tom secured a writer's contract at Universal at the age of nineteen.
He was soon hired by renowned directors Robert Wise and Mark Robson as their Director of Project Development, collaborating on films such as EARTHQUAKE and THE HINDENBURG. Tom also worked with Robert Wise on the first STAR TREK motion picture. For Harve Bennett, he contributed to projects including writing for the hit series THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and collaborating on STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN and STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME. Throughout his career, Tom has worked at all major Hollywood studios, penning over 150 scripts for feature films, pilots, TV series, and movies, and producing over 100 hours of television. Several series he worked on launched notable Hollywood careers, including Judd Hirsch in THE LAW, Patrick Duffy in MAN FROM ATLANTIS, Geena Davis in KNIGHT RIDER, and Kim Basinger in DOG AND CAT.
Tom has collaborated with legendary directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, George Roy Hill, Arthur Hiller, John Frankenheimer, Robert Wise, Mark Robson, Paul Mazursky, Carl Reiner, Richard Donner, and John Badham. He continued writing and producing popular series like MAGNUM P.I., TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY, and KNIGHT RIDER, and was the writer, creator, and Executive Producer of the ABC/WALT DISNEY STUDIOS award-winning Western miniseries WILDSIDE, starring Academy Award-nominated Howard Rollins and Meg Ryan. WILDSIDE marked Meg Ryan's first prime-time TV series; Tom was so impressed by a homemade video interview sent by her agent that he convinced Disney CEO Michael Eisner to cast her over several established actresses for the lead role of Cally Oaks.
Tom served as Executive Producer on MCA Entertainment's SWAMP THING and later became Supervising Producer on BSB Productions/Rysher Entertainment's action-adventure series THUNDER IN PARADISE. In addition to producing, he directed episodes, wrote two spin-off films, and developed the first interactive CD-i game based on a television series. He wrote, directed, and co-Executive Produced the pilot "Jason and the Argonauts" for French production company Gaumont; the feature "Cabin Pressure" for Lion's Gate; and multiple features for Frankfort Filmproduktionen in Germany. Currently, he is working on the screenplay LITTLE VICTORIES, an autobiographical feature about his experiences under 24-hour FBI surveillance during childhood.
Tom's childhood experiences fueled a lifelong commitment to activism, especially after witnessing his father, an award-winning writer, face persecution during the era of McCarthyism for his relentless fight against oppression and false accusations. Besides acting and being a skilled musician and composer, Tom is dedicated to rescuing horses from slaughterhouses. Collaborating with various horse-rescue organizations, he has helped save hundreds of horses and has personally taken in many. To raise funds for horse sanctuaries, Tom has competed in numerous charity rodeos nationwide, having been trained by Academy Award-winning actor Ben Johnson and the "King of the Cowboys," Roy Rogers. He has also performed jousting at Renaissance Fairs and demonstrated ancient equestrian skills such as Keyhole, Serpentine, and Quintain.
Trained as a fencer by Hollywood swashbuckling icon Master Ralph Faulkner at Falcon Studios, Tom has incorporated his swordsmanship experience into many productions and appeared in several books on the art of fencing. He is also a lecturer and historian on Hollywood, and an expert authenticator of movie and TV props and costumes, sharing his knowledge with museums, auction houses, and collectors worldwide. Additionally, he has served as a Hollywood historical consultant on numerous feature films.
Tom is the author of two books: the adult fable A Snowball In Hell, and co-author of Off The Boss: A Survival Manual. He developed a pioneering literacy program, THE WORD FIRST©, sponsored by the Writers Guild of America Foundation, CAA, and Universal Studios. Traveling to high schools across the country, he works with "at-risk" students—many mistakenly labeled "functionally illiterate"—guiding them to write one-act plays that are then performed by professional actors before the student body.
