James Frey

Frey is a Denison University alumnus, a history major from the class of 1992.

Frey wrote the screenplays to the films Kissing a Fool and Sugar: The Fall of the West the latter of which he directed as well. Both were produced in 1998.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune had questioned Frey's claims as early as 2003. Frey responded by saying, "I've never denied I've altered small details." In a May 2003 interview, Frey claimed that his publisher had fact-checked his first book.

In 2004, Frey wrote My Friend Leonard, which continued where A Million Little Pieces left off. The book centered on the father-son relationship which Frey formed with his friend Leonard, from the Hazelden addiction treatment program. My Friend Leonard was published in June 2005 by Riverhead, and became a bestseller.

In May 2009, Vanity Fair reported that Winfrey had called Frey and apologized for the surprise topic change of the January 26, 2006. She made a televised apology in 2011.

On November 2, 2007, the Associated Press published a story about a judgment in favor of readers who felt deceived by Frey's claims of A Million Little Pieces being a memoir. Although the publisher, Random House, had set aside $2.35 million for lawsuits, only 1,729 readers came forward to receive a refund for the book. The refund offer was extended to anyone who had purchased the book prior to Frey's disclosing the falsehoods therein. Chicago Lawyer Larry D. Drury, defending the plaintiff, received approximately $1.3 million for legal fees, distribution of the legal notice, and charitable donations to three charities, while total claimants' refunds issued to readers only came to $27,348. The publisher also agreed to provide a disclosure at the beginning of the book, citing the somewhat fictitious nature of the text.

In late 2007, Frey signed a new three-book, seven-figure deal with Harper Collins to release his novel, Bright Shiny Morning, which was published May 13, 2008. Bright Shiny Morning appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, and has received mixed reviews. The New York Times's Janet Maslin, who had previously been one of Frey's detractors, gave the book a rave review. The New Yorker review described the novel as "banal". The book also received highly polarized reviews by the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian. The first epigraph states: "Nothing in this book should be considered accurate or reliable."

In 2009, Frey formed Full Fathom Five, a young adult novel publishing company that aimed to create highly commercial novels like Twilight. In November 2010, controversy arose when an MFA student who had been in talks to create content for the company released her extremely limiting contract online. The contract allows Frey license to remove an author from a project at any time, does not require him to give the author credit for their work, and only pays a standard advance of $250. A New York magazine article entitled "James Frey's Fiction Factory" gave more details about the company, including information about the highly successful "Lorien Legacies" series, a collaboration between MFA student Jobie Hughes and Frey. The article details how Frey removed Hughes from the project, allegedly during a screaming match between the two authors. In the article, Frey is accused of abusing and using MFA students as cheap labor to churn out commercial young adult books.

On August 19, 2010, the New York Post's "Page Six" gossip column reported that Frey has teamed up with executive producers Mark Wahlberg and Steve Levinson to write the pilot for a one-hour drama for HBO that will focus on a behind-the-scenes look into the porn industry in Los Angeles. Frey described the show as "a sprawling epic about the porn Business in LA. We're going to tell the type of stories no one else has told before, and go places no one has gone before." In August 2012, Frey published "A Moving Story", chronicling the workplace organizing of a New York moving company, on the website Libcom.

In 2011, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, depicted as "the last book of the Bible" was released on Good Friday, April 22, 2011. He self-published e-editions of the book. A self-professed atheist, his work has reflected his attempt to write about a god that he "might actually believe in."

On October 7, 2014, Endgame: The Calling, the first book in a trilogy of novellas by Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton, was published by HarperCollins. It was turned into an augmented reality game by Google's Niantic Labs, as well as a movie by 20th Century Fox. The premise of the novella is that aliens created human life on Earth and 12 ancient lines are destined to train a player to fight to the death for the survival of their line once Endgame begins. The book series will also have clues which will lead one lucky winner to a cash prize.

In November 18, 2015, Pepsi released "Black Knight Decoded," a fictional narrative imagining a conspiracy involving the Black Knight satellite legend. Frey was credited as the Writer.