John O'Bryan was raised by professional whittlers in the backwoods of Western Tennessee and Northern Mississippi. His father worked as a Baptist minister on weekends and instilled in him many of the Bible's most important lessons on how to smite someone. His mother would read him the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual when he couldn't sleep. While living in Memphis, he learned to run from the sound of gunfire. He cut his writing teeth typing obituaries for Mississippi's most prestigious newspaper and would later abandon his southern roots to write for Hollywood. There, he would use his wealth of nerd knowledge to his advantage, writing for Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender (not the crappy M. Night Shyamalan movie of the same name) and Disney XD's Motorcity.