Clark Perry

I was born in the hills of Alabama. My neighbors were bootleggers, Klansmen, and snake handlers. I was baptized at an early age in the power of Story. I went to weird backwoods churches, fire and brimstone stuff, people speaking in tongues and flailing about. Of all the sermons that made an imprint on me, nothing hit me harder than Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone. We pulled in ghostly reruns from Atlanta by wrapping aluminum foil around our TV antenna and praying real hard.

I drew my own comics as a kid, stapled them together and passed them around school. My classmates devoured them and demanded more. It was the only thing I was ever any good at.

 

As soon as I could, I got my hands on a Super 8mm movie camera and made films with my friends. We're talking model spaceships on strings. Watery ketchup for blood. Animating laser beams by scratching away streaks of film emulsion with razor blades (and hey, it looked pretty damn good).

When I started writing seriously and submitting my work to editors, I got hundreds of rejection slips. Each one broke my damn heart but not one of them stopped me. Every now and then something sold. Over the years I was lucky enough to study with Harlan Ellison, Damon Knight, and Robert Towne.

I did time in journalism, advertising, and the tech industry. Now I'm in Hollywood writing for TV and film. Having a blast.
 

Less than a mile away from me sits the studio lot where Brother Rod conjured The Twilight Zone.

​

I've finally come home to the only church I ever believed in.