Born in Odessa, Texas and spending his formative years throughout western Oklahoma and Central Texas, Johnston developed a storytelling sensibility in the traditions of Will Rogers, Jim Thompson, Elmer Kelton and Kinky Friedman. His ethnic lineage is a direct route up the trail of tears as as his grandparents were of various Native American tribes. A background in collegiate athletics and a lifelong passion for coaching and inspiring led Johnston to teaching filmmaking to Elementary students in Southern California while working on various film and television projects. Johnston still manages to coach Special Olympics and mentor young filmmakers and visual artists. Currently Johnston is premiering a film at the Austin Film Festival, completing his fourth feature length script, and programming several new post-production tools for use in 2D & 3D compositing. He frequently works as a consultant for the formatting of reality series programming.