John Quick was born in Devon, England. His family moved to South Africa when he was six, and to (then) Southern Rhodesia when he was ten. After High School, he served articles of clerkship in attorneys' offices, and was admitted as an Attorney in 1962. John moved to the United States in 1962 as a student at UC Berkeley, and graduated from UCLA film school in 1966. After working as an assistant cameraman and film editor in Los Angeles for a year, John moved to Berkeley to work as a film producer at the University if California. He has since worked in the San Francisco Bay Area as a producer, cinematographer, and editor in both film and video.