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Paul Jeffrey Davids was raised in Kensington and Bethesda, Maryland, attending Garrett Park Elementary School, Kensington Junior High School, and Walter Johnson High School. He is the son of Dr. Jules Davids (Ph.D.), a late tenured full professor of American Diplomatic History at Georgetown University and one of the "Founding Fathers" of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. Jules Davids authored the textbook America and the World of Our Time, published by Random House, and contributed to John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, acknowledged in the Preface for his material input in several chapters. Paul’s mother, Frances Davids, was a lifelong 5th-grade teacher. Winning the first Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine Amateur Movie Contest at age fourteen inspired Paul Davids to pursue a career in motion picture production. From elementary school onward, he created numerous amateur science-fiction, dinosaur, dragon, and monster films using stop-motion animation. His cinematic heroes included Ray Harryhausen, George Pal, and Forrest J Ackerman.
As an undergraduate at Princeton University, where he majored in psychology, he earned multiple writing awards, including the F. Scott Fitzgerald Prize for literature. He was the only undergraduate to keep an animation stand in his dorm room to draw and film cartoons. After Princeton, he was selected as one of the first 15 fellows at the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film Studies in Beverly Hills. His student film at AFI, titled "Examination," featured Paul Picerni of TV's "The Untouchables." His mentor there was George Seaton, writer of "Miracle on 34th Street" and a prolific director.
Paul Davids' initial entertainment industry experience came as an employee of agent Paul Kohner, known as "The Magician of Sunset Boulevard." Working five years as a script analyst and assistant to Kohner allowed him to collaborate with notable clients such as William Wyler, John Huston, Charles Bronson, Cornel Wilde, and Alistair MacLean. During this period, he wrote the screenplay for Robert Dornhelm’s feature "She Dances Alone," about Nijinsky’s daughter Kyra. He also served as a segment producer for F. Lee Bailey on the TV series "Lie Detector." His first major opportunity arrived when Marvel Productions' executive producer Nelson Shin hired him as production coordinator for the "Transformers" animated series, where he worked on 79 episodes and wrote many of them.
Lucasfilm later contracted him and his wife, Hollace, to write six Star Wars sequel novels: "The Glove of Darth Vader," "The Lost City of the Jedi," "Zorba the Hutt's Revenge," "Mission From Mount Yoda," "Queen of the Empire," and "Prophets of the Dark Side." These illustrated books, published starting in 1992, sold millions worldwide in both paperback and hardback editions, including translations into Japanese, French, Hebrew, and other languages.
Following his role as executive producer and co-writer of Showtime’s "Roswell" (1994), he produced, wrote, and directed nearly a dozen independent films, including dramas, comedies, and documentaries—often on controversial subjects. Universal released five of his features for worldwide TV distribution. His documentary "The Sci-Fi Boys," featuring Peter Jackson, coincided with the release of Jackson’s "King Kong" and went on to win the Saturn Award for Best Documentary of 2006, among other honors and extensive international TV showings.
Paul Davids has been a longtime member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Producers Guild of America (PGA). He is married to Hollace G. Davids, who served as Senior Vice-President of Special Projects at Universal Pictures for over fifteen years. They have two adult children: Jordan Duvall and Scott Michael Davids, who has numerous credits as an editor and special effects supervisor on major films and TV shows.
In addition to his film career, Paul Davids is a noted artist with many exhibitions, including a three-month show in 2014 at the Ritz-Carlton resort in Laguna Niguel. He has lectured extensively, often on UFOs and the Roswell Incident. His favorite hobby is magic, and he has been a member of Hollywood’s Magic Castle (the Academy of Magical Arts) for 28 years, typically attending more than once a month when in Los Angeles.
