John Ward was lured into show business at the age of 12 when his younger sister, Jennifer, was named the photo double and stand-in for Drew Barrymore in Stephen King's Firestarter (1984), which was shot in his native Wilmington, NC. This gave him the acting bug, leading to several small acting roles over the years. In 1998 he made his directorial debut with Enchanted (1998), a film he also wrote,