Geoff Johns

As a child, Johns and his brother first discovered comics through an old box of comics they found in their grandmother's attic, which included copies of The Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, and Batman from the 1960s and 1970s.

He has named the Flash as his favorite character, stating that he owns every issue of it.

Johns eventually began to patronize a comics shop in Traverse City, recalling that the first new comics he bought were Crisis on Infinite Earths #3 or 4 and The Flash #348 or 349, as the latter was his favorite character.

As Johns continued collecting comics, he gravitated toward DC Comics and later Vertigo, and drew comics.

Geoffrey Johns (born January 25, 1973) is an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and film and television producer.

Johns's work on the DC Comics characters Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash, and Superman has drawn critical acclaim.

He co-created the DC character Courtney Whitmore based on his deceased sister.

He also expanded the Green Lantern mythology, adding in new concepts and co-creating numerous characters.

Among the DC characters and concepts he co-created are Larfleeze, the Sinestro Corps, the Indigo Tribe, the Red Lantern Corps, Atrocitus, the Black Lantern Corps, Jessica Cruz, Hunter Zolomon, Tar Pit, Simon Baz, Bleez, Miss Martian, and Kate Kane.

Geoff Johns was born January 25, 1973, in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Barbara and Fred Johns.

He is of half-Lebanese ancestry and grew up in the suburbs of Grosse Pointe and Clarkston.

After graduating from Clarkston High School in 1991, he studied media arts, screenwriting, film production and film theory at Michigan State University.

He graduated from Michigan State in 1995, and then moved to Los Angeles, California.

In Los Angeles, Johns cold-called the office of director Richard Donner looking for an internship, and while Johns was being transferred to various people, Donner picked up the phone by accident, leading to a conversation and the internship.

Johns started off copying scripts, and after about two months, was hired as a production assistant for Donner, whom Johns regards as his mentor.

While working on the production of Donner's 1997 film Conspiracy Theory, Johns visited New York City, where he met DC Comics personnel such as Eddie Berganza, reigniting his childhood interest in comics.

Berganza invited Johns to tour the DC Comics offices, and offered Johns the opportunity to suggest ideas, which led to Johns pitching Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., a series based on the second Star-Spangled Kid and her stepfather, to editor Chuck Kim a year later.

Johns expected to write comics "on the side", until he met David Goyer and James Robinson, who were working on JSA.

After looking at Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., Robinson offered Johns co-writing duties on JSA in 2000, and Johns credits both him and Mike Carlin with shepherding him into the comics industry.

He also credits reading James Robinson's The Golden Age as the book responsible for his love of the characters featured in the book, and for his decision to accept writing duties on JSA.

That same year, Johns became the regular writer on The Flash ongoing series with issue 164.

Johns' work on The Flash represents one example of his modeling of various elements in his stories after aspects of his birth town, explaining, "When I wrote The Flash, I turned Keystone City into Detroit, made it a car town. I make a lot of my characters from Detroit. I think self-made, blue-collar heroes represent Detroit. Wally West's Flash was like that. I took the inspiration of the city and the people there and used it in the books."

Johns' Flash run concluded with #225.

He co-wrote a Beast Boy limited series with Ben Raab in 2000 and crafted the "Return to Krypton" story arc in the Superman titles with Pasqual Ferry in 2002.

After writing The Avengers vol. 3 #57–76 (Oct. 2002–Feb. 2004) and Avengers Icons: The Vision #1–4 (Oct. 2002–Jan. 2003) for Marvel Comics, Johns oversaw the re-launch of Hawkman and Teen Titans.

Johns was responsible for the return of Hal Jordan in 2005 as the writer of the Green Lantern: Rebirth mini-series and subsequent Green Lantern ongoing title.

Johns was the writer of the Infinite Crisis crossover limited series (December 2005 – June 2006), a sequel to 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths. Following this, Johns was one of four writers, with Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, and Greg Rucka, on the 2006–2007 weekly series 52.

In 2006, Johns and Kurt Busiek co-wrote the "Up, Up and Away!" story arc in Superman and Action Comics.

He then reunited with Richard Donner on the "Last Son" storyline in Action Comics with Donner co-plotting the series with his former assistant.

The Justice Society of America series by Johns and artist Dale Eaglesham began in February 2007 and six months later, he and Jeff Katz launched the new Booster Gold series.

That same year, Johns helmed the critically acclaimed "Sinestro Corps War" storyline in the Green Lantern titles.

He served as Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of DC Entertainment from 2010 to 2018 and as President and CCO from 2016 to 2018.

In film, he was a producer or executive producer of Green Lantern (2011), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), Justice League (2017), Shazam! (2019), Birds of Prey (2020), co-wrote and produced the story for Aquaman (2018) and wrote the screenplay for Wonder Woman 1984 (2020).

Johns' involvement with DC Entertainment as producer, writer and executive has helped turn the DC Extended Universe franchise into the eleventh-highest-grossing film franchise of all time, having grossed over $5.6 billion at the global box office.

The franchise's highest-grossing film to date is Aquaman, written and produced by Johns, which earned over $1.15 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing DC film to date.

He co-developed the TV series The Flash (2014–2023), Titans (2018–2023), and Doom Patrol (2019–2023) and created and produced the TV series Batwoman (2019–2022), Stargirl (2020–2022) and Superman & Lois (2020–present).

His other work in television includes writing and producing various episodes of Blade, Smallville and Arrow.

He is the co-founder and former co-chairman of DC Films and former co-runner of DC Extended Universe until 2018.

In 2018, he stepped down from his executive role at DC Entertainment to open a production company, Mad Ghost Productions, while continuing to work with Warner Bros on writing and producing film, television and comic book titles based on DC Extended Universe and other DC properties such as films Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

In 2023, he co-founded the media company, Ghost Machine alongside several other comic book writers and artists to publish independent work.