After attending
Emerson College,
N.Y.U. Film School and the
University of Oregon, Grais set out for Los Angeles, where he began a TV writing career, starting with a job at
Baretta, before eventually moving into feature films in partnership with
Mark Victor, a friend from grade school. Grais and Victor's first two scripts, an unproduced comedy called
Turn Left And Die and the action film
Death Hunt, brought them to the attention of
Steven Spielberg. From his association with Spielberg, Grais co-wrote
Poltergeist. Its success led to a sequel,
Poltergeist II, which Grais co-wrote and produced. He then co-wrote and executive produced the TV pilot
Visitors From the Unknown for CBS and executive-produced the film
Great Balls of Fire!, starring
Dennis Quaid as
Jerry Lee Lewis. In 1990, he co-wrote and produced
Marked for Death starring
Steven Seagal. In 1992, he produced
Steven King’s
Sleepwalkers, and co-wrote
Cool World for director
Ralph Bakshi. In 2000, he executive-produced ''
Who Killed Atlanta's Children? for Showtime. Grais also oversaw production on the syndicated series The Immortal''. Grais, a wild horse advocate, took a sabbatical from Hollywood in 2001 to move with his wife, singer/songwriter Jennifer Grais, to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, for three years and begin writing the novel ''Christa's Luck
, a YA novel that was published in 2015. In 2015 the remake of his Poltergeist screenplay was produced for MGM. After Mexico, the couple moved to Taos, New Mexico, with their horse Solo, the inspiration for their novel which they continued to write. Grais continued to write commercial screenplays for a slate of ready-to-produce projects for his new company Graisland Entertainment. In 2010, Grais moved back to Northern California where he was an uncredited script doctor on several big productions and developed two television series for streaming platforms but production was delayed due to the COVID epidemic. Crossfire Hurricane'', an action comedy he co-wrote and will produce, is set to go into production in 2021 in New Orleans, Louisiana. ==Filmography==