Jonas James Pate (born January 15, 1970) is an American screenwriter, director and producer. He wrote and directed The Grave, Deceiver, The Take, and directed Shrink. Pate also co-created Good vs Evil, Surface and Outer Banks.

Early life

Jonas Pate was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and is the twin brother of fellow filmmaker Josh Pate.^[1] Pate's parents divorced when he was young, and the siblings were raised through elementary school with their mother and step-father in Atlanta, Georgia, and through high school with their father and step-mother in Raeford, NC.^[2] He studied philosophy at Princeton University, and graduated in 1992.^[3][4]

Career

In 1996, Pate started his career by writing and directing the thriller film called The Grave with his brother Josh.^[5][6] After a screening at the Sundance Film Festival, it received a wide range of positive reviews.^[4][7] The following year, they collaborated on the movie Deceiver.^[8] He subsequently co-created the fantasy action television show Good vs Evil (1999) alongside his brother.^[9] From 2003 to 2004, he served as co-executive producer on L.A. Dragnet,^[10][11] for which he also wrote an episode.^[12] In 2005, he co-created the science fiction series Surface, which aired until 2006.^[13][14]

As his filmography was already fleshing out, he took on several directing jobs on television series like Battlestar Galactica (2005),^[15][16] Bionic Woman (2007),^[17] Friday Night Lights (2007-2010),^[18] Chuck (2008),^[19] The Philanthropist (2009),^[20] Caprica (2010),^[21][22][23] Undercovers (2010),^[24] The Event (2010-2011),^[25] and Prime Suspect (2011).^[26] He continued his film career by writing the screenplay for The Take (2007).^[27][28] In 2009, he directed the independent film Shrink.^[29]

Pate is the director and executive producer on the Battlestar Galactica prequel entitled Blood & Chrome.^{[30][31][32][33]} He has also signed on to direct the independent crime drama film Way Down South, written by himself and his brother.^[34][35]

Pate is the co-creator and executive producer of Outer Banks for Netflix, a teen drama that premiered on April 15, 2020.^[36]

Personal life

Pate currently lives with his wife, Jennifer,^[37] and two young adult children, Lilah and Cooper,^[38] in Wilmington, North Carolina.^[36]

In 2020, he was appointed by Governor Roy Cooper to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Film, Television, and Digital Streaming.^[36]

His daughter, Lilah, has made several cameos on Outer Banks and several other Netflix and Amazon Prime Video series; such as The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Filmography

Awards and nominations