​Jean-Pierre Isbouts is a bestselling author and award-winning screenwriter and film director. A humanities scholar, his research has been devoted to biblical archaeology, Renaissance Florence and 19th century Europe. He also serves as graduate professor in the doctoral programs of Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, CA.

Jean-Pierre was born in Eindhoven, Holland and studied Attic Greek and Latin before continuing in archaeology, art history and musicology at Leyden University. He completed his doctoral research on the 19th century architectural firm of Carrère & Hastings at Columbia University in New York. He then joined the American Council for the Arts (ACA) in New York City, active in a number of Federally funded arts programs. ​

​

In the 1990's, he founded the ArtSpace studio in Los Angeles, a unit of American Interactive Media, and produced a number of programs on Renaissance and 19th century art as part of the Great Art Series; many of these were subsequently translated in seven languages. He later served as Managing Director of Philips Interactive Media Europe, a joint venture with Polygram, from its head offices in London, UK.

​

As a musicologist, Dr. Isbouts has produced recordings of Bach, Corelli, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Satie, Franck and Debussy with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and other soloists and ensembles.​

 

An award-winning filmmaker, Jean-Pierre has directed stars including Leonard Nimoy, Charlton Heston and Dick van Dyke, working with Hollywood studios such as Disney, Castle Rock Entertainment, Hallmark and Agamemnon Studios. His TV programs have been broadcast on ABC, A&E, CNBC, History Channel, Hallmark Channel and PBS stations, as well as scores of television networks in Europe and Asia.

​

His first book, Charlton Heston's Hollywood, was published in 1998. Based on many hours of interviews with Charlton Heston, the book chronicles the astonishing transformation of post-war American cinema through the eyes of the only actor whose career spanned from Cecil B. DeMille to James Cameron.

​

In 2007, National Geographic Books published his first major work, The Biblical World, which became a worldwide bestseller, and the first of several books for National Geographic Society. The success of Biblical World was followed by the 2012 publication of In the Footsteps of Jesus, which sold over a 100,000 copies in the first 8 weeks of release--an unprecedented record for a large hard-cover book at a $40 price point.

​

In 2013, Jean-Pierre wrote his in-depth study of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa ("The Mona Lisa Myth"), written with Dr. Christopher Brown, and began a new work on the history of Christianity. In November of 2013, National Geographic Books will publish Jean-Pierre's Who's Who in the Bible, a major reference work comprising over 2,000 men and women in the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament.

 

Jean-Pierre is represented by Global Lion Intellectual Property Management, a literary agency based in New York, Los Angeles and Florida .

 

​Jean-Pierre is graduate professor in several doctoral programs at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara (www.fielding.edu). In his spare time (or what's left of it), he likes to discover new places in Asia and the Middle East with his wife Cathie, a production executive at Pantheon Studios. The father of four children, now in their mid-20's and early 30's, and grandfather of two beautiful boys, he and Cathie live in Santa Monica with a furry child named Katie, a very opinionated Labrador Retriever.