Robert Johnson was born and raised in Oakland, California before eventually moving to Hollywood. After earning an MFA from UCLA's Department of Film, Television and Theatre, he became a screenwriter, earning First Place honors in Samuel Goldwyn and Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Awards. His first book, Thirteen Moons: A Year in the Wilderness, chronicled a Henry David Thoreau-esque year he spent living out of a teepee on the banks of the American River high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He currently lives in Santa Barbara with his wife and two children.