John Carmack

Also known as John D. Carmack, John D. Carmack II

American computer programmer and video game developer (born 1970)

OverviewAI-generated

John Carmack is an American programmer, computer scientist, and engineer born in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, in 1970. He has worked as a chief technology officer for companies including id Software, Softdisk, Armadillo Aerospace, and Reality Labs. His notable works in the fields of video games and virtual reality include Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein 3D.

Carmack is a Presbyterian who resides in the Kansas City metropolitan area and Heath. He attended the University of Missouri–Kansas City and speaks English. He is married to Katherine Anna Kang. His professional recognition includes receiving the D.I.C.E. Awards and the BAFTA Fellowship.

Synthesized by Vinony from 23 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, TMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works: 2

Top works

A Bright Ray Of Hope
Tolerance

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Shawnee Mission, Kansas, USA

Known for

FPS: First Person Shooter — Self2023
First Person Shooter — self2023
High Score — Self2020

via TMDB

Key facts

Born: ( 1970-08-21 ) August 21, 1970 (age 55) , Shawnee Mission, Kansas , U.S.
Occupations: Computer programmer video game developer engineer
Years active: 1989–present
Employers: Keen Technologies (2023–present) Oculus VR (2013–2022)
Known for: Co-founding id Software , Commander Keen , Wolfenstein 3D , Doom , Quake
Title: Consulting CTO, Oculus VR , Founder, Armadillo Aerospace
Political party: Libertarian
Spouse: Katherine Anna Kang ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 2000 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 2021 )
Partner: Trista DeLeon (2022–present)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: John
Gender: male
Citizenship: United States
Spouse: Katherine Anna Kang
Occupation: television actor
Position held: chief technology officer
Educated at: University of Missouri–Kansas City
Employer: Armadillo Aerospace
Languages spoken: English language
Religion: Presbyterianism
Award: BAFTA Fellowship
Notable work: Wolfenstein 3D
Field of work: virtual reality
Image: John Carmack 2025.jpg
Residence: Heath

Show 4 more facts

Commons category: John D. Carmack
date of birth: 1970-08-21
social media followers: 1029350
name in native language: John Carmack

Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~16 min read

Encyclopedic overview

John D. Carmack II (born August 21, 1970) is an American computer programmer and video game developer. He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its 1990s games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and their sequels. Carmack made innovations in 3D computer graphics, such as his Carmack's Reverse algorithm for shadow volumes.

In 2013, he resigned from id Software to work full-time at Oculus VR as their CTO. In 2019, he reduced his role to Consulting CTO so he could allocate more time toward artificial general intelligence (AGI). In 2022, he left Oculus to work on his AGI startup, Keen Technologies.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “John Carmack” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.