Jason Weixelbaum

Dr. Jason Weixelbaum is a writer, producer, musician, and organizer. He goes by Jay. He grew up in Los Angeles and comes from a family in the movie business. His father, Martin West, was soap star in the 1970s and worked with Alfred Hitchcock and John Carpenter. As a child, his dad used to take him to the theater above Jerry's Deli where he'd hang out in booth during rehearsals. Jay spent his early career as a graphic designer, briefly attending Syracuse University before moving to Boston to design video games for Playstation in the late 1990s. After the dot-com crash, he made his way into finance, where he encountered the unscrupulous world of corporate banking. Working in offices by day and playing guitar and drums in bands by night, Jay worked in political organizing in his spare time. In the mid-2000s, he became intensely interested in the history of American companies doing business with Nazis and decided to return to school to finish his undergrad degree. By 2010, Jay was attending graduate school at Boston College and a chance meeting got his research noticed by Oliver Stone. He went on to consult & write for the award winning documentary series, The Untold History of the United States. Meanwhile, Jay got into the PhD program at American University in Washington D.C. to continue research in his field. While working toward his doctorate, he took prestigious appointments at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Academy of Sciences. Having relocated to Baltimore, Jay Weixelbaum also continued playing in bands, including work with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. He hadn't considered continuing in his father's theater footsteps, but got sucked into leading a band for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society. This led to more writing and producing, including creating the company's 10 year anniversary show slated for 2021. In 2018, Jay Weixelbaum finished his PhD and used his writing skills for progressive causes, writing for political campaigns and registering voters. Two years later, he started work writing for the National Institute for Science and Technology and for campaigns in the 2020 election. During the onset of the pandemic, Jay pulled together a bunch of his colleagues with writing and producing experience and founded Elusive Films LLC to turn his PhD research into a miniseries.