Kerry Mark Joëls

Kerry Mark Joëls is the son of Merrill E. Joëls (Actor, National Board of Screen Actor's Guild) and Marion C. Joëls (American Academy of Dramatic Arts). He was a child actor in New York from age 5 to age 13 attending Professional Children's School and performing in live television drama, plays, radio, and commercials. He did the voice of "Jimmy" who stowed away in space on the 1958 release "The Space Explorers." This piqued his interest in astronomy so he semi-retired from acting to attend New York's Stuyvesant High School and pursued a career in Physics and Astronomy. This eventually led him to work for NASA. During this time he met an befriended Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek, and the rest of the Star Trek original group including Gene Roddenberry. He was script technical advisor for the James Bond "Moonraker" film. In 1978 he moved from NASA to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum where he produced an orientation film with Nichelle Nichols. He co-wrote the "Space Shuttle Operator's Manual" for Ballantine Books in 1982 and worked on the White House Young Astronaut Program starting in 1985. Here he was technical advisor to Marvel Production for an animated space series and wrote and co-produced the CBS "Astro-minutes" with Geraldine Clark (Rugrats). He was put under contract by Universal to develop a space animated property. He produced a variety of instructional and informational videos for the Office of the Secretary, U.S Department of Health and Human Services, and has been active in the development of a variety of science fiction television and film properties. (credit: The Planetary Society)