Stentz graduated from
UC Santa Cruz with a degree in journalism. As a journalist, he wrote and edited for publications such as
The Economist,
Esquire,
Sports Illustrated, and
Entertainment Weekly. In addition, he was an environmental activist for
Earth First! in the early 1990s. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in journalism, he worked for
Metro Silicon Valley, writing about television, books and popular culture, as well as the Sonoma County Independent (now the
North Bay Bohemian) In 1997, publisher
Dan Pulcrano tapped Stentz to oversee Metro's rebranding and launch of its San Francisco monthly, The Metropolitan. After turning to screenwriting full-time, from 2000 to 2015 he worked with writing partner
Ashley Edward Miller, beginning with
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. As a team, they co-wrote the films
X-Men: First Class, the
Marvel Cinematic Universe film
Thor, and
Agent Cody Banks. He and Miller did some of the initial work on the project that became
Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel to the 1986
Tom Cruise film
Top Gun, released in 2022. As writer and producer, he worked on the
Netflix science fiction adventure film
Rim of the World (2019), directed by
McG. He has written and produced multiple television programs, including Gene Roddenberry's
Andromeda,
The CW's The Flash,
Fox's Fringe, and
Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. He also created and developed the animated show
Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous for Netflix. He has several projects in development, including television programs for
Skydance Television,
Warner Bros., and
HBO, as well as the
DC superhero film
Booster Gold at Warner Bros. and a remake of
Big Trouble in Little China at Fox. Additionally, he co-wrote the acclaimed young adult novel
Colin Fischer, and is currently writing an adventure/thriller entitled
Nevermore. He also teaches screenwriting in the United States and in China. He was a guest of the Wutianming Foundation in
Tianjin, and of Wanda Studios in
Beijing, where he taught young Chinese screenwriters the tricks and techniques of writing American action movies. ==Personal life==