Peter Lenkov

Peter Lenkov grew up wanting to be a comic-book writer. It took him years to finally fulfill his ambition, but along the way he became one of American television's most prolific writer-producers. Lenkov's first big break came by contributing the original story for the Sylvester Stallone sci-fi movie "Demolition Man" (1993). Working steadily as a scriptwriter in TV throughout the 1990s eventually led to an Emmy-nominated stint on "24" (Fox 2001-10) before working as a writer-producer on "CSI: NY" (CBS 2005-10) and developing the reimagining of "Hawaii Five-0" (CBS 2010- ). Lenkov returned to big-budget cinema action in 2013 when his graphic novel R.I.P.D. was made into a movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges.

Lenkov was born in Montreal and grew-up a massive comic book fan. "We had a huge collection of comic books before my mother decided, after I moved out of the house, to get rid of them," he told MTV in 2013. After writing scripts without much success, he penned the story for "Demolition Man" (1993), a satirical mash-up of futuristic cop movies and over-the-top action. He also got a story credit for his work on the Pauly Shore comedy vehicle "Son In Law" (1993).

After spending much of the rest of the 1990s toiling in mainly unremarkable movies -- including two direct-to-video sequels to the Jean-Claude Van Damme action hit "Universal Soldier" (1992) -- Lenkov's talent for blending action and drama was finally recognized when he landed a regular writing job on the syndicated action hit "La Femme Nikita" (USA 1997-2001) before going on to write and produce the police comedy-drama "The District" (CBS 2000-04), which was based loosely on the life of former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple.

Meanwhile, Lenkov penned two four-issue comic-book miniseries for Dark Horse Comics, R.I.P.D. with artist Lucas Marangon, and Fort: Prophet Of The Unexplained, which was illustrated by Frazer Irving and chronicled the fictional adventures of the real-life early 20th century investigator of the unexplained Charles Fort. After "The District" ended, Lenkov joined "24" (Fox 2001-10) in 2005 as a writer for its fourth season. Lenkov worked on "CSI: NY" (CBS 2005-13) as a producer and writer, but "Hawaii Five-0" (CBS 2010- ) was a more personal project, since Lenkov's father was a long-time fan of the original series. Lenkov developed the rebooted series, contributed stories and was the show's executive producer. In 2013, Universal released a big-budget adaptation of Lenkov's comic book series "R.I.P.D." directed by Robert Schwentke and starring Ryan Reynolds as a recently-slain Boston cop who joins the afterworld's law-enforcement agency, the Rest In Peace Department, in a bid to track down the man who murdered him.