Rod Barr graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University, where he won numerous creative writing awards and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the English Department. He studied creative writing under Joyce Carol Oates.
After college, Rod worked two seasons in Antarctica (one at South Pole Station, one at McMurdo Station… and yes, it’s cold), then explored the world (New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, China, Tibet, Japan, Russia, Turkey, Morocco, all through Europe). When he returned to the States, Rod won a Massachusetts Arts Grant for short story writing, and wrote 10 books in the Alden All Stars sports series of novels for 8-12 year old boys, published by Puffin. He also wrote for the Sweet Valley High series for girls. Rod then used his writing skills to transition into the video game industry. For years, he ran his own video game design and production firm, and created many games and character universes for a variety of platforms, including Nintendo, Sega, and PC. During this time he also partnered with Stan Lee on TV, toy and movie properties. In 2000, Rod became President of Tremor Entertainment, a publicly-traded video game development company. He ran all business and creative aspects of the company, and landed major contracts with Sega, Microsoft and other significant players. But, after three years, he found himself dealing exclusively with spreadsheets and realized he had gotten away from his true love: writing. So he left Tremor and set out to write movies. Since then, Rod has sold two original scripts to Route One Films – one a high-powered action script, Safe Distance, and one a family story, Family Treasure. In 2011, he sold a TV pilot to MRC — a one-hour drama called Higher Powers. In 2013, he adapted a WWII memoir, The Shadow of His Wings, for Metanoia Films. Since then, he and director Alejandro Monteverde (Bella, Little Boy) have completed an original supernatural thriller called The Hidden Ones (currently out to NetFlix); a drama called The Sound of Freedom, based on the true-life story of Tim Ballard (founder of O.U.R., a non-profit that rescues children from sex slavery); and a historical drama based on the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, currently called, not surprisingly, Mary. The development of these last three projects was funded through Metanoia Films. On the TV side, Rod and Alejandro are developing a number of TV shows, including Duelers (a historical drama involving great true-life duels) and Drag (a show about the intersection of Chicano culture and illegal drag-racing in 1970 Los Angeles). On the work-for-hire side, Rod completed page-1 rewrites of The Fourth Magi (a four quadrant animated movie) for Lightstream Pictures; Mistral (a magical romantic comedy) for Matt Williams and Wind Dancer Films; and Indigo (a Twilight-style supernatural drama) for Sheryl Leach Productions. He also wrote Kismet (an adaptation of a WWII holocaust survivor’s memoir) for producer Julie Stern. Rod has also completed six spec scripts. Sparrow – a historical bio-pic about forgotten jazz legend Boyce Brown – is due to shoot in 2017 with director Scott Palazzo. Rip – a contemporary romantic comedy based on the Rip Van Winkle legend – went out to the studios through Wendy Finerman, Cruise/Wagner and John Davis. Bootlegger’s Wife, his latest spec, is an explosive Prohibition-era drama and is going out soon.