Darren Lemke (born ) 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 . 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 the 2010 film Shrek Forever After, 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 (2021–2025).
In 2024, Disney hired Lemke to write a script for a detective film set in Disneyland's private dining club Club 33. In the same year, Lemke worked on a draft of a script for Shout It Out Loud, a biopic in development about the band Kiss with McG attached to direct.
Credits + Lemke's credits Year Title Medium Notes 2004 Lost Film Wrote, also directed 2010 Shrek Forever After Film Writing credit with Josh Klausner Jack the Giant Slayer Film Story credit with David Dobkin; screenplay credit with Christopher McQuarrie and Dan Studney Turbo Film Screenplay credit with Robert D. Siegel and David Soren; story credit for Soren 2015 Goosebumps Film Screenplay credit; story credits for Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski2018 Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween Film Story credit with Rob Lieber; screenplay credit for Lieber Film Writing credit Shazam! Film Story credit with Henry Gayden; screenplay credit for Gayden Gemini Man Film Story credit with David Benioff; screenplay credit with Benioff and Billy Ray 2021–2025 Television Executive producer; 24 episodes (three seasons)2024Kung Fu Panda 4FilmWriting credit with Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger
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