Joshua Davis (born 1974) is an American writer, film producer and co-founder of Epic Magazine.
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Early life
Davis is the son of Miss Nevada winner Janet Hadland and Highlander film producer Peter S. Davis. Davis attended Stanford University, where he double majored in Economics and Modern Thought and Literature.
Career
Davis wrote the New York Times bestselling book Spare Parts, which grew out of his article "La Vida Robot." The story follows the lives of four teenage immigrants who built an underwater robot. The book was a finalist for Columbia University's J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and was adapted into the movie Spare Parts by Lionsgate starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa Tomei. It premiered in January 2015.
In 2012, Davis was kidnapped in Libya while reporting an article for Men's Journal. Later that year, he lived with John McAfee in Belize and documented McAfee's lifestyle and legal problems, including allegations of murder. In 2003, Davis covered the Iraq war for Wired. For The New Yorker in 2011, Davis wrote about bitcoin when the cryptocurrency was worth five dollars. He has also profiled Elon Musk multiple times, including a 2010 Wired cover story and in an early in-depth article about Tesla.
Davis' first book, The Underdog, was published by Random House in 2005. It chronicles Davis' entry into unusual competitions around the world, including the US Sumo Open and the World Armwrestling Championship in Gdynia, Poland. Davis documented his time as a competitive arm wrestler in the film "The Beast Within," which won best documentary at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival.
In 2013, Davis and Joshuah Bearman formed Epic Magazine, a magazine and production company specializing in unusual true stories. Davis and Bearman have sold more than fifty articles to Hollywood, with four films and two TV series produced. Davis, in partnership with J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot, also produced the short documentary series "Moon Shot," which chronicles the work of those competing for the Google Lunar X Prize.
In 2019, Epic Magazine was acquired by Vox Media for an undisclosed sum.
In 2025, Penguin Random House published The Uncertainty Principle, a young adult novel co-authored by Davis and his son Kal Kini-Davis. The book was a 2026 Rainbow List Young Adult Pick.
Also in 2025, Davis executive produced the documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, about the music festival founded by Sarah Machlachlan, and The Merchants of Joy, which chronicles the lives and businesses of the suppliers of Christmas trees to New York City. The Merchants of Joy was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Documentary.
Awards
2003 Winner of Best Documentary at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival for The Beast Within
2014 Finalist for the National Magazine Award in Feature Writing for "John McAfee's Last Stand"
2015 Finalist for the Columbia School of Journalism's Lukas Prize for Spare Parts
2021 Finalist for an Independent Spirit Award as an Executive Producer of Little America
2022 Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival as an Executive Producer of Breaking
2023 Winner of the Audience Award for Best Film at the Sundance Film Festival as a Producer of Radical
2026 Emmy Nomination for Best Documentary as a Producer of The Merchants of Joy