Derek Johnson II is an American screenwriter, novelist and producer from Tennessee. While in college, he had a small publishing business where he sold and distributed non-fiction. He sold that company and came to Los Angeles. His first film, “Sweating Sand” has won at 11 film festivals and has been featured in so many more. Now he produces multi-media and writes full time. His radio show "Film Center" has 500,000 listeners every week and has a spin-off podcast with Comicon-Radio. He has been featured on Fox, CBS, VoyageLA and NBC. In March 2021 became a Founding Investor of Pencilish Animation Studios.