Official Bio
Jeremy Melloul is a science-fiction and fantasy writer in Los Angeles, California currently working as a Writer at Cloud Imperium Games.
As a Third Culture Kid (see below), Jeremy grew up immersed in a confluence of cultures and was raised between France, Los Angeles, and Israel. He often struggled to reconcile these different worlds and the difficulties he faced in his home life. Whenever he needed to escape from reality he turned to stories.
Since then, Jeremy has dedicated himself to writing the same kinds of stories that helped him get through the hardest parts of his life. He writes sci-fi and fantasy because he enjoys using genre as a way to dramatize character and theme and loves the process of building original worlds.
In addition to writing for film and TV, Jeremy is a professional, Eisner-nominated, translator in the comic book industry who was worked on over 80 titles. He’s also a content creator in the roleplaying game space, producing content for the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guild and clients like Cartoon Network/Adult Swim.
What are Third Culture Kids?
Third Culture Kids (or TCK) is a word used to refer to people who, as children, spent their formative years in places outside of their parents’ home culture. Products of an increasingly globalized world TCKs are generally exposed to a large volume and variety of cultural influences over their course of their childhood, as opposed to growing up in one particular cultural setting.
When I first heard this term, I was stunned. I didn’t know there was a word that represented my experiences growing up. I grew up in Los Angeles. But I only moved to the United State when I was five. Before that, I was in France, where I grew up. And throughout my entire childhood - even after moving to the U.S. - I spent part of every year living in Israel with my birthfather and getting to know my extended family there. Beyond the cultural differences inherent to those places, I also grew up Jewish, immersed in the North African sephardic culture of my parents, who were Tunisian and Moroccan, respectively.
If you ask me where I’m from, I usually just say “I was born in Paris, but I grew up in LA.” But that doesn’t really reflect the degree to which my multicultural experiences as a TCK have influenced my outlook or worldview. While parts of being a TCK were difficult to deal with growing up, today I’m really grateful for this part of my identity. I can draw a direct line between the challenges I faced as a TCK and the stories I write today - stories about belonging, identity, loss, and more. And I can’t help but be grateful to have grown up immersed in such a variety of cultures.
If you want to learn more about TCKs check out this BBC article or the Wikipedia entry.
Jeremy’s Other Interests
Hi! Past this point I’m a bit over the whole 3rd-person thing. In addition to my love for storytelling, I’m passionate about a lot of other subjects - even if I’m not involved with them professionally. Here are a few, in case you want to chat:
Live Action Roleplay!
The business of entertainment / creative entrepreneurship
Wildlife conservation
Finding the next great slice of pizza (right now Prince Street Pizza in New York & LA is my favorite)