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John Birmingham’s IMDb Profile
John Birmingham’s deepest love is for God and Jesus. He believes that since God loves us more than anyone else, we should love God above all. All love originates from God, who is love itself. We should love God first, then Jesus, followed by our spouse if married, or our parents if single, or others if alone. John learned from the Bible that fornication and adultery are wrong. He strives to learn as much as possible about God and Jesus and to emulate Jesus, who exemplifies kindness.
John loves God, Jesus, and his children Rowan, Ivan, and Ayla, and has devoted himself to raising them well. He is a filmmaker, musician, and actor with strong skills in both the creative and technical aspects of movies, music, and video production. John excels as a screenwriter and actor, writing, singing, and playing his own songs, while also maintaining creative control as a producer or director. He has written his own original music and has written, directed, and starred in three original feature-length films, 55 films and music videos, and more than 2,000 online videos as an actor or creator, accumulating around 162 million views, including 12 million on his personal YouTube channel and an additional 400 million views on videos he helped create or produce. His three children star alongside him in videos with over 1.2 billion views.
John grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, dedicating his life to God and Jesus while pursuing music, art, writing, and filmmaking from childhood. He credits God for all the good in his life and the talents he was given. John has worked with notable figures such as Ed Asner and Pauly Shore, among many successful friends in entertainment. At 19, John moved alone to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. There, he worked as a production designer for Full Moon Pictures and Tempe Entertainment and contributed to many independent and major films. He produced, wrote, and directed films while earning a B.A. in Screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University in 2000 and an M.F.A. in Film Production from Chapman University in 2005.
While at Chapman University, John wrote, directed, produced, and starred in his first feature film, One Nation Under God, later retitled Crazy Animal. His short film Tir Nan Og, which he produced and edited, won a Young Artist Award in 2002 alongside stars like Hilary Duff and Frankie Muniz. Danica DeCosto accepted a Jackie Coogan Award for best short film at the same event. Danica later married John; they honeymooned at the Sundance Film Festival, where John’s film Crazy Animal premiered in Tromadance’s secret screenings at Park City.
John also produced, production designed, and edited the higher-budget short film Imagination, directed by Danica, which was screened at various international festivals and won awards in the early 2000s while John lived in Los Angeles. After several film projects in L.A., John returned to Virginia, married Danica, and had three children: Rowan, Ivan, and Ayla. Together, their children have amassed over a billion views on YouTube through traditional widescreen videos. Before returning to Virginia in 2005, John edited Imagination, which was completed on 35mm print for theatrical screenings before the shift to digital projection.
During his time in L.A., John primarily attended school while also working as a production designer and in other film roles, mainly on independent films, some with high budgets and A-list actors. He produced the SAG film Plan 9, a remake of Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space, directed by John Johnson and starring Brian Krause, with John making a cameo as "Butch." The film also featured personalities like The Angry Video Game Nerd and was released in Walmart stores worldwide in 2015.
After working in film and attending film school from 1997 to 2005, John returned to Virginia to marry Danica and start a family. Their children, Rowan, Ivan, and Ayla, are featured with them on Danica’s YouTube channel, garnering between 4 and 40 million views monthly from November 2014 to the present. John conceived and stars in Danica’s most popular video, "Rowan is terrified of Ronald McDonald," which has over 63 million views as of summer 2023, surpassing Elon Musk’s biggest 2022 video.
John’s work has also appeared on popular channels like Looper, with over 5.7 million subscribers, particularly in their video about Jackass actor Brandon DiCamillo titled "Where is the cast of Jackass now?" which reached 20 million views. His films and videos have been discussed on top ghost-themed YouTube channels like Bizarre Bub (1.71 million subscribers), in a "Scary Compilation V50" video recounting a ghost sighting by his son Rowan in 2008, which accumulated over 4 million views.
John’s films have screened at festivals such as Tromadance and Slamdance (where his animated short Willis was featured on the homepage) and at Cannes Film Festival, where Troma Entertainment showcased his films Crazy Animal and Rednecks. John is best known for writing, directing, producing, starring in, editing, and composing music for three feature films: Crazy Animal, The Vampires of Zanzibar, and Rednecks. He has also collaborated with filmmakers like Johnny Johnson (Darkstone Entertainment), Mariah Johnson, Cory Greer, Tracy Lee Staton, Derek Young, and others.
The Vampires of Zanzibar was a significant project for John, created after he recommitted his faith in God at the end of 2006. After feeling discouraged working as a real estate agent, he prayed for relief, and by what he calls a miracle, God allowed him to leave real estate and make this film using his saved money. Despite containing some human flaws, the film was made with good intentions and required immense effort from John and his dedicated cast and crew. The Vampires of Zanzibar is considered a work of art and a gift from God. Trailers are available online, and John is seeking distribution. His other two feature films, Rednecks and Crazy Animal, were distributed by Troma Entertainment. Together, these three films represent about 12 years of full-time work.
In addition, John has produced approximately 100 feature-length reality-style documentary videos over one to two years, planning to distribute them now that he returned from Los Angeles as of January 1, 2024. Though primarily earning income through real estate, John and Danica’s viral Ronald McDonald video generated an estimated $200,000. His feature films have sold between 20,000 and 30,000 copies. Working with his parents in real estate funded his three feature films, 42 original music videos, and over 2,000 other video projects.
From 2005 to 2023, John worked hard in real estate to support his creative endeavors, compensating for less productivity in filmmaking since 2015. Though budgets were limited for new films after 2013’s Rednecks and 2014’s Animals From Outerspace album and videos, some of his best video and music work was produced thereafter. John is moving back to Los Angeles to pursue acting, writing, and potentially directing higher-budget films, while continuing to create videos unless God directs otherwise. He hopes for a long, fulfilling life with his wife and children after challenging times marked by limited financial success in filmmaking and a demanding real estate career.
John and his family’s level of celebrity in the entertainment industry is rare, especially given he was not born into the business but was raised with a love for music and art, including painting and drawing. John has written, recorded, performed, and produced over 40 music videos. Much of his work is available on his YouTube channel. He taught himself to sing in his mid-twenties and was taught art in childhood by his grandmother, one of the first female graduates of Pratt Institute’s art school in the 1930s.
John is highly skilled in Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, software he has used since 2000 on Macintosh computers. Prior to that, he edited using various PC and non-linear editing systems and graphic programs like Paint since the early 1990s. He has filmed thousands of videos and recorded over 200 original songs, with several professionally produced albums as of 2023. Above all, John’s greatest love is for God and Jesus, and on earth, he cherishes Danica and their children Rowan, Ivan, and Ayla, as well as family and friends, whom he values even more than his work in film and music.
