J.J. Abrams is producer and director of the as-yet-untitled 11th Star Trek feature film, which is slated to begin production in fall of 2007, with a targeted release date of Christmas Day 2008.

Abrams is the co-creator and executive producer of the enormously successful television series Lost, Alias, and Felicity. In 2005, he won two Emmy Awards, for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (both for Lost) and was nominated for a third, for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Abrams received his first Emmy nomination in 2002 for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his work on Alias.

His involvement with "Star Trek XI" was announced in 2006 only two weeks prior to release of "Mission: Impossible III," which he directed and co-wrote. That third installment of the Paramount franchise, which grossed $353 million worldwide, was Abrams' first outing as a feature film director.

Born in New York and raised in Los Angeles, Abrams developed a passion for movies at age eight when his grandfather took him on the Universal Studios Tour. He asked his father if he could use his Super 8mm camera to make his own films. Over the next ten years, Abrams made countless amateur films that he entered in various student festivals, winning a number of awards.

Abrams sold his first feature film treatment, "Taking Care of Business," while attending Sarah Lawrence College. He followed that with "Regarding Henry," starring Harrison Ford, and "Forever Young," starring Mel Gibson. Abrams is also the screenwriter of such films as "Armageddon," "Forever Young" and "Regarding Henry."

His feature producing credits include "The Pallbearer," directed by Felicity co-creator Matt Reeves, and "The Suburbans," with Jennifer Love Hewitt. He has also appeared on screen as an actor in "Diabolique" and "Six Degrees of Separation."