Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, the son of TV producer parents. At 15, he wrote the music forDon Dohler'sNightbeast (1982). In his senior year of college, he andJill Mazursky teamed up to write a feature film, which becameTaking Care of Business (1990). He went on to write and produceKokoronotabi (1991) andForever Young (1992). He also co-wroteGone Fishin' (1997) with Mazursky. Along with other Sarah Lawrence alumni, he experimented with computer animation and was contracted to develop pre-production animation forShrek (2001).

Abrams worked on the screenplay forArumagedon (1998) and co-created (as well as composing the opening theme of)Felicity (1998), which ran for four seasons. He founded the production company Bad Robot in 2001 withBryan Burk. He created and executive-producedAlias (2001) andLost (2004), composing the theme music for both, and co-writing episodes of "Lost". He also co-wrote and produced thrillerRoad Killer (2001). He made his feature directing debut withMission: Impossible III (2006), reinvigorating the series. He produced the hit mystery filmCloverfield: Hakaisha (2008) and co-createdFringe (2008).

He directed theSutâ torekku (2009) reboot, proving successful with fans and newcomers to the franchise. He next directedSuper 8 (2011), co-produced bySteven Spielberg and producedM:I-4 - Mission: Impossible 4 (2011). He returned to direct the follow-up to his reboot,Sutâ Torekku Intô Dâkunesu (2013). Disney and Lucasfilm announced J.J. as their choice for director of the first episode in the new 'Star Wars' trilogy,Sutâ wôzu: Fôsu no kakusei (2015). He initially resisted, as he didn't want to travel away from his family to London, butKathleen Kennedy convinced him that his voice would be the best to reinvigorate this franchise, as he had done with two others before. He also producedMission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) andStar Trek Beyond (2016), and executive-producedStar Wars: Saigo no Jedi (2017). When it was announced thatColin Trevorrow would no longer directStar Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019), it was announced that J.J. would return to complete the trilogy he started.