Jonah Ward was born lucky – the only kid of William and Youmna Ward, Jonah saw the light of day during a business trip to Maui, and grew up with a perfectly normal upper class childhood on the east coast. William, the partner of an accounting firm, and his mother, a realtor, weren’t around terribly much, but Jonah was a kid with an active imagination and an early love for movies, and came out surprisingly happy and (almost) well-adjusted.
From a young age, Jonah had a flair for the dramatics — in elementary school, he acted in a few plays, in high school, he realized he enjoyed the behind the scenes work much more, and started getting into stage decorating and working on whatever effects they needed.
His parents, however, wanted a business career for their son, and Jonah agreed on the grounds that he could attend college in California. Once enrolled, Jonah did not show up to a lot of his classes – business had never been on his horizon and he knew it, so he spent his time, again, around the drama classes and started taking courses that were more in line with his interests. For a while he used his skills in special and visual effects mostly to do music videos for newcomer bands, a few advertisements here and there, until he had his parents convinced that he could make a career of it, and they agreed to move him to an arts based college.
During his teenage years, Jonah had struggled on and off with undiagnosed depression, but things took a turn for their worst after a trip he took with his friends after college. The lot of them had chipped in for a trip to a ski lodge, and disaster found them – one of their friends, when they were all a little too past sober, decided a stoned late night trip was a good idea. It went as bad as it possibly could, and they returned home shaken, guilt ridden, and one friend short
After the funeral, Jonah very quickly returned to California and, for a while, isolated himself from everyone who had been involved with the trip, and instead buried himself in work and little else. His teenage issues returned; his depression came back, and his anxiety started to get worse. For the first time in his life, Jonah sought professional help. With weekly counseling and several pills added to his diet, Jonah slowly returned from his shell and became a little more well-adjusted again.
Over time, though, living in California started to … not mesh well with his anxiety. The plethora of competition in his career, the lifestyle, started to wear on him, to the point he found it hard to leave the house, and felt even worse if he stayed in. His therapist recommended he take a sabbatical, since between his anxiety and tendency to become maniacally focused on his work, a burn out seemed almost inevitable. Begrudgingly, after giving it a lot of thought, Jonah moved back to Maui, and after some time off, made the decision to stay in Maui and go back to working freelance, and part time for productions in town.
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