John Tarnoff is a 30-year veteran of the media/entertainment business, with broad management experience as studio executive, film and interactive producer, and technology entrepreneur. He is based in Los Angeles, CA.

Tarnoff’s current focus is to develop stronger ties between the Media/Entertainment industry and higher education, addressing the challenges of preparing new talent for this rapidly evolving industry in the digital age. As a consultant, he is developing strategies and programs for clients including Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

’s Masters of Entertainment Industry Management graduate program, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and ACME Network, a digital distance learning company.

Previously, he served as Head of Show Development at DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. is an American animation studio based in Glendale, California that creates animated feature films, television program and online virtual worlds...

. His department oversaw a number of future-oriented agendas for the company, including the company’s internal artistic enrichment program, its outreach program to schools in the CG animation space, and developing strategies for the “front end” of the animation process, including visual development, design and storyboarding.

Some of the films he has been responsible for include Diner

Diner (film)

Diner is a 1982 comedy-drama film written and directed by Barry Levinson. Levinson's screen directing debut, Diner is the first in his "Baltimore films", which also include the subsequent Tin Men, Avalon and Liberty Heights.-Plot:...

, The Year of Living Dangerously

The Year of Living Dangerously

The Year of Living Dangerously is a 1982 Peter Weir film adapted from the novel The Year of Living Dangerously by the author Christopher Koch. The story is about a love affair set in Indonesia during the overthrow of President Sukarno...

, Pink Floyd The Wall

Pink Floyd The Wall (film)

Pink Floyd—The Wall is a 1982 British live-action/animated musical film directed by Alan Parker based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The film is highly metaphorical and is rich in symbolic imagery and sound...

, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a 1989 American science fiction–comedy buddy film and the first film in the Bill & Ted franchise in which two metalhead slackers travel through time to assemble a menagerie of historical figures for their high school history presentation.The film was written by...

and The Power of One

The Power of One

The Power of One is a novel by Bryce Courtenay, first published in 1989. Set in South Africa during the 1930s and 1940s, it tells the story of an Anglo-African boy who, through the course of the story, acquires the nickname of Peekay. The Power of One is a novel by Bryce Courtenay, first published...

. A co-founder of Village Roadshow Pictures

Village Roadshow Pictures

Village Roadshow Pictures is an Australian motion picture production company. It is a subsidiary of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, an Australian entertainment company. Most of its films are co-produced in partnership with Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema...

, he pioneered U.S./Australian co-productions in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Tarnoff branched into multimedia development in 1994, licensing the interactive rights to Orwell

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...

and creating the game BIG BROTHER based on the book. He and director John Badham

John Badham

- External links :...

 co-wrote the successful PC/Playstation game WarGames

WarGames

WarGames is a 1983 American Cold War suspense/science-fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy....

, based on Badham's hit movie).

From 1995 to 2003, he was the co-founder of Talkie, Inc a technology company that created online conversational animated characters for marketing, brand building, lead generation, customer service and training.

Tarnoff holds a B.A. from Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

, and a M.A. in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica

University of Santa Monica

The University of Santa Monica is a private unaccredited graduate school in Santa Monica, California, offering master’s and doctoral degrees in spiritual psychology.-Mission:...

. He grew up in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and is a passionate still photographer.