JEFFREY MORRIS

FOUNDER & COO

 
Award-winning writer, director, producer, entrepreneur and production designer Jeffrey Morris was born in Chicago, Illinois. A true Renaissance Man, Morris credits his highly-educated adoptive parents, Mary and Willie Morris, for imparting a deep sense of values and fostering the evolution of amazing future worlds in his imagination. As African-American trailblazers, they taught him that the sky was the limit and the only barriers to success were the ones he imposed on himself.

As a child, Morris attended elementary school in Tempe, Arizona at the tail-end of the Civil Rights Moment and the advent of integration. As one of the only kids of color, this often-challenging foundational experience opened the door to a lifetime of open communication and successful collaboration with diverse individuals from all walks of life.

His father, Willie, was an aeronautical engineer who gave Morris tours of aircraft under construction and took him to see the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. He even brought home a poster of an odd-looking airplane attached to a rocket. Morris was blown away to learn all about the Space Shuttle many years before it was launched. These were among numerous transformational experiences during Morris’ youth that piqued his interest in science, exploration, and creativity.

His mother, Mary, was a library clerk by profession. As a stay-at-home-mom, she emphasized literacy and took Morris and his younger sister Rhonda to the local library on a weekly basis throughout their childhood. It was there that he routinely checked out books on space, oceanography, and weather. She also encouraged them to limit their exposure to TV and use their hands though learning to garden and paint.

Morris’ interest in science and the cosmos grew exponentially alongside continually pondering the human condition. As his childhood reality at school was fraught with continual racial conflicts, he was motivated to imagine a better tomorrow by watching science-fiction shows like Star Trek and Space 1999. It was within these stories that he found hope.

Morris credits several teachers for greatly influencing him and encouraging his boundless creativity. Among them are his 1st grade teacher Ms. Ellertson and his 8th grade history teacher Mr. Nelson—both of whom fostered and encouraged his broad pantheon of interests. Morris’ other role models included explorer Jacques Cousteau, scientist Carl Sagan, television pioneer Gene Roddenberry, and film artist Syd Mead. He eventually had the honor of meeting the latter two in person.

Morris also was deeply inspired by sci-fi movies and television during his formative years. Films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Superman, Close Encounters of The Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner and the TV series Battlestar Galactica exponentially expanded his young mind. He researched how they were made and taught himself illustration in order to design spaceships and create his own rudimentary visual effects. Morris shot his first films on Super-8 and eventually moved to digital production.

During his senior year in Urbana, Illinois, Morris began to write and structure elaborate narratives. His first big personal writing project was about a race between nations to develop the first spacecraft to travel at the speed of light—a story he still intends to pursue as a feature film.

After studying film in college, Morris was at a crossroads. He explored settling in either Los Angeles or Minneapolis. He decided upon the latter as it was less saturated with creative competition and also served as a place where he could explore his growing interest in entrepreneurship. To make money while he planned out his creative endeavors, Morris worked as a graphic designer by day and DJ at local night clubs by night. During this period he also explored dance and choreography.

Morris observed that several successful young directors began their careers making music videos. Eager to build his own production company, he called Minneapolis Mayor Don Fraser with the goal of learning how to build a successful Minnesota-based business. Morris assumed he would be directed to the Office of Economic Development.

He was shocked when he received a call from the Mayor himself. Fraser took an interest in Morris and went on to introduce him to key members of the Minneapolis business community. Morris can literally track the course of his career from that day to his current success.

After launching his first company Synthesis in 1990, Morris began working with another of one his heroes—multiple Grammy® award-winner Prince as a dancer/choreographer. He then moved on to directing and producing videos for Paisley Park Studios a few years later.

In 1992, Morris officially broke into screenwriting. His project Utopia, about the first colony on Mars, was optioned by Academy Award Winner® Ridley Scott (Gladiator) two years later. Adding to his Hollywood resume, Morris also collaborated with the writing staff of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager and had several stories accepted for further development into episodes.

Morris eventually raised private equity and shot a TV pilot called Endeavour in 1995 about test pilots in the future. It was through this project that he was recruited into education. He taught at Twin Cities schools at the K- 12 level as a licensed Community Expert and used his creative abilities in film and art to bring lofty science down to Earth.

In 1999, he founded a non-profit 501(c)3 called Project Universe which worked extensively with the Science Museum of Minnesota, Minneapolis Planetarium, and International Space University. This led to Morris becoming a contractor with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. There, he worked in the area of Education and Public Outreach with the Outer Planets Program.

In 2010, Morris launched Morris FutureWorks as a production company that unified his interests in science, media, and business development. In the company’s early years, he developed and patented the Apple iOS app Timesphere and created the graphic novels Slingshot, Venus: Daedalus One, Brainstorm, Parallel Man, and Oceanus.

He continually tracked his professional adventures through futuredude.com. The moniker “FutureDude” stemmed from Morris’ quest to popularize a better view of tomorrow via his expanding brand of humanistic science fiction. The blog was a success—so much so that Morris rebranded the company as FutureDude Entertainment.

Currently Morris is in post-production for his documentary The Eagle Obsession, in production for his documentary Return to Tomorrow. He also has two narrative science fiction films in pre-production, Persephone and Oceanus.

Morris’ previous film credits include the animated world-hopping adventure Parallel Man: Infinite Pursuit (2015) and the futuristic underwater spectacular, Oceanus: Act One (2015)—both are showcased as part of a development deal between FutureDude and Gunpowder & Sky Studios for their sci-fi streaming platform Dust.

Morris attended Southern Illinois University, where he studied film production and political science. He also worked extensively with graduate business programs at the University of Saint Thomas and University of Minnesota Carson School of Management.

From a charitable standpoint, Morris supports The Ocean Institute, SETI, and The Planetary Society.