Darren Lemke

Darren Lemke (born 1970 (age 27)) is an American screenwriter who has been active in the film industry since the late 1990s. With his work on the films Shrek Forever After (2010), Turbo (2013), Goosebumps (2015), Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018), Shazam! (2019), and Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024), The Hollywood Reporter called Lemke "a known player in the family feature space".

Background
Lemke was born in 1970 (age 27). Raised in Carlstadt, New Jersey, he went to Paramus Catholic High School in Paramus, New Jersey. After high school, he attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, New York to study screenwriting. In 1997, he sold two pitches to Touchstone Pictures for Tony Scott to direct; one of the pitches became Gemini Man, which was released in 2019. In 2004, Lemke wrote and directed the thriller film Lost. In the following year, Lemke pitched the idea of adapting the English fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk" with computer-generated imagery. By 2013, Jack the Giant Slayer was directed by Bryan Singer.

Lemke's first major screenwriting credit was for Shrek Forever After (2010), which he wrote with Josh Klausner. Since then, he wrote and helped write for mostly family-oriented feature films. He also became one of the executive producers for the TV series The Wheel of Time (2021–present).

In 2024, Disney hired Lemke to write a script for a detective film set in Disneyland's private dining club Club 33.