One of Hollywood’s most prolific and powerful film and television writer/director/producers, J.J. Abrams, has floated his plush yet comfortable Pacific Palisades, Calif., home on the market with a by-any-standard prodigious price tag pushing up on $22 million. The veteran showbiz polymath and his wife, Katie McGrath, purchased the pretty bluff-top spread in early 2014 for $14.47 million, and subsequently transformed the stately mid-1990s residence into an up-to-date family home that is both relaxed and refined with ample space for both formal and casual entertaining.
Through his Bad Robot Productions, which he runs with McGrath, Abrams has created, co-created, written, directed and/or produced a number of hit TV shows, including “Felicity,” Alias,” “Lost” and the dystopian megahit “Westworld.” He’s also had a hand in numerous blockbuster films, “Star Trek” (2009) and a couple of the “Star Wars” films among them, and his lengthy slate of projects currently in one stage of production or another include the TV series “Lovecraft Country,” a couple of upcoming installments of the “Mission: Impossible” film franchise and a not yet untitled sequel to “Star Trek.”
Invisible from the street behind high hedges, strategically placed trees and secured gates along one of the most sought after streets in Pacific Palisades, the lush and beautifully landscaped .6-acre city- and ocean-view spread has an impressive list of nearby neighbors who include Brooke Shields, private equity bigwig Bill Barnum, Herbert and Bui Simon, he the owner of the Indiana Pacers and she a former Miss Universe title holder from Thailand, Steven Spielberg, whose Sullivan Canyon equestrian ranch is just below the Abrams’ estate, and pop-rock star Adam Levine and fashion model Behati Prinsloo, who just over two years ago paid former couple Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck $32 million for a sprawling compound that was once owned by another heavy-hitting Hollywood power player, Brian Grazer.