John Moyer

Official Site of John Moyer

Screenwriter: The Singles Ward, Mobsters and MormonsDirector:Mobsters and Mormons

John Moyer (May 1, 1969) was born just over the bridge from Philly; a South Jersey native raised just minutes away from a landfill the EPA ranked one of the top ten most toxic in the country. His father George was a blue collar kind of a guy who believed that good old fashion family values were instilled by using the belt -- then followed up with screaming "Now shut up before I really give you something to cry about!"

At age eleven two Mormon missionaries knocked on John's family's front door and his parents asked them in to hear the message. Before long, the Moyer family gave up caffeine, tithed ten percent of their gross annual income, and went to church for three hours every Sunday by converting to Mormonism. John's parents felt they found the answers to bring their family back to God.

But by the age of seventeen if anybody was going back to God it was every man for himself because after four kids and thirty one years of marriage, John's parents divorced.

A broken home aside, John hung in there and at age nineteen was the one knocking on front doors serving a full time, two year Mormon mission dodging gunfire among the urban streets of Detroit. Toss in a marriage at the ripe old age of twenty two while still attending college at BYU, then an inevitable divorce of his own by age twenty four... you have hours of life impacting situations to discuss with a therapist.

Only John didn't have medical insurance to cover the costs of therapy. So he became a stand up comedian instead.

Since 1994 John has performed at comedy clubs and colleges throughout the United States and Canada. In addition to his headlining appearances, John's been the opening act for such comedians as Louie Anderson, Pauly Shore, Lewis Black, and The Chappelle Show's own Charlie Murphy. John has also performed at a myriad of corporate events for companies and organizations like America Online, Jet Blue, Marriot Hotels, Intermountain Health Care, and the United States Air Force. Along the way he took first place in the Salt Lake City, UT round of the Anheuser- Busch Comedy Competition.

Expanding on his stand up comedy, in the summer of 2000 John wrote a script called The Singles Ward based on his own life experiences as a stand up comic and a single member of the LDS church. With the popularity of the LDS film market on the rise, John was approached by fellow film school friend Kurt Hale of HaleStorm Entertainment about making an indie film. John mentioned he had a comedy script about Mormons that just might fit the niche. The Singles Ward was on its way to being produced. Initially director Kurt Hale figured John to play the lead. After all, this was his life, and the lead character, Jonathan Jordan was essentially John. However, producer Dave Hunter immediately eliminated any possibility of John starring as the lead arguing that "John wasn't attractive enough to play himself."

However, the success of Singles Ward allowed John to establish himself as a produced screenwriter leading to several more of his scripts being produced. John's grand finale for his efforts in LDS cinema was to capture the true experience of the culture shock of someone from Jersey who suddenly find themselves living in Utah. John wrote the script for Mobsters and Mormons, the story of a Mafia family from Jersey placed in the witness protection program to an all Mormon-community in Utah. How much more fish out of water could one get?

Wanting to make sure the vision on paper was carried to the screen, John took it upon himself to direct Mobsters and Mormons as well. Marking his directorial debut, the film was praised by audiences and critics alike.

"An entertaining fish-out-of-water comedy made primarily for insider consumption, "Mobsters and Mormons" is also the directing debut of screenwriter John E. Moyer, whose previous three comedies -- "The Singles Ward," "The R.M." and the "Tommy Boy"-inspired "The Home Teachers" -- single-handedly pioneered the Mormon comedy subgenre... Moyer and distributor HaleStone clearly aren't playing it safe -- of the four films Moyer has written, all of which HaleStone has released, "Mobsters and Mormons" is by far the most fully realized, weaving broad comedy into the context of a story meant less to mindlessly amuse its target audience than prod them to self-reflection. Intermittent shortcomings notwithstanding, that's no lightweight task. " -- Wade Major, Boxoffice.com

Needing a constant source of new material, John is now remarried to his wife of eight years. They live just outside of Salt Lake City with one child and one on the way. There are no toxic landfills nearby, however each summer the family visits the desert of Southern Utah's nuclear testing grounds of the 1950's. It's the closest thing Utah has to the Jersey Shore.