John D McMahon

A graduate of the prestigious USC Cinema where he was mentored in writing and directing by such luminaries as John Milius, Edward Dmytryk (one of the Hollywood 10), Margaret Mehring, and Bob McKee.

John continues a 20 year career as a writer and documentary filmmaker. Exploring non-fiction filmmaking is a passion that began while in film school and increased substantially while working with documentary filmmaker Richard B. Davies. Working with the R.B. Davies company in 1988 provided many opportunities to apply his broad range of skill sets as well as learn new skills such as effectively conducting on – camera interviews with non-professional talent under emotionally-charged situations. Some of the programs included World Vision International television specials, the St. Jude Children’s Hour and several seasons of HBO’s Comic Relief.

John is accustomed to working with celebrity talent as well. His work in the entertainment industry includes creating television trailers and behind-the-scenes EPKs for Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Taylor Hackford’s company New Visions Entertainment. John has worked with Dustin Hoffman, Sylvester Stallone, Danny Aiello, and Ray Bradbury to name a few. One of his 3 speculative feature film scripts – KEPLER, an epic biographic drama about the 16th Century German astronomer having to take refuge with Tycho Brahe – a 16th Century aristocrat and party animal, was optioned by Price Entertainment. John has ghost written for NBC’s SANTA BARBARA and the hit television series HERCULES and XENA.





In 1995, John was commissioned by the City of Long Beach to create a 24-Hour cable channel for public information purposes and for Fire Department and EMT training. The resulting FIRE CHANNEL featured bi-weekly community news magazines, looks inside the workings of fire stations, and scrambled proprietary cable cast for department training. This work led to another commission to research, write and direct a series of educational documentaries for Third Grade students (a program that is still being used today).

Together with partner Ngoc-Thuy Nguyen, John formed Ombrella Media, LLC – a production company that develops documentaries, television programs, and feature films.
Current projects in development include two scripted one-hour dramatic series - THE ART STEALERS and GHOSTWALKER. Other projects include an IMAX 3D 70mm presentation on China and a feature film adaptation of Lou Dantzler’s A PLACE TO GO/A PLACE TO GROW – the story of how he created the Challengers Boys and Girls Club in South Central Los Angeles.

In addition to his work in direct response television and corporate multimedia, John has written several special interest broadcast and non-broadcast campaigns for a number of non-profit organizations. His first magazine article appeared in 2001. Since that time he has contributed to a wide variety of domestic and international publications.

John has created visual designs for the Taco Bell Corporation, special effects director Hitoshi Inoue, Studio PMG, and producer Donald P. Borchers. His interests include music, fine art, literature, learning languages, fitness and aikido.