Peter Ocko (sometimes credited as Pete Ocko) is an American
television writer
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
and
producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
. Ocko has had a very diverse 30-year career in television. He has written and produced for a number of popular television series throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and through to today including ''
Pushing Daisies
''Pushing Daisies'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Bryan Fuller that aired on ABC from October 3, 2007, to June 13, 2009. The series stars Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to l ...
,
The Office,
The Leftovers,
Elementary
Elementary may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Elementary'' (Cindy Morgan album), 2001
* ''Elementary'' (The End album), 2007
* ''Elementary'', a Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin album, 1977
Other uses in arts, entertainment, a ...
'', and ''
Black Sails'' and most recently ''
Lodge 49''. Ocko began his career as a staff writer on the HBO series ''
Not Necessarily the News'', followed by a string of single-camera comedies in the 1990s, writing for such shows as ''
Parker Lewis Can't Lose
''Parker Lewis Can't Lose'' is an American teen sitcom that originally aired on Fox from September 1990 to June 1993. It was produced by Clyde Phillips Productions in association with Columbia Pictures Television. During the last season, the ...
'' and ''
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
''. Crossing over to drama, he wrote for ''
Dead Like Me
''Dead Like Me'' is an American comedy-drama television series starring Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin as grim reapers who reside and work in Seattle, Washington. Filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, the show was created by Bryan Fuller for ...
'' and ''
Boston Legal
''Boston Legal'' is an American legal drama and comedy drama television series created by former lawyer and Boston native David E. Kelley, produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. The series aired from October 3, 2004 ...
'', and then created and ran the CBS medical drama ''
3 lbs'' starring
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's ''Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in film ...
. He now lives in California with his wife, Elizabeth, and 5 kids.
Career
Television writer
Ocko's writing career began in 1989 when he was one of the writers on the
41st Primetime Emmy Awards
The 41st Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 17, 1989. The ceremony was broadcast on Fox from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California. The ceremony saw the guest acting categories double, as they were now based on ...
and from there co-wrote five episodes of the series ''Dinosaurs'' with best friend Adam Barr. From the early nineties until the mid-2000s he wrote and produced for a number of well-received series, mostly comedy shows including ''
Weird Science Weird Science is the name of:
* ''Weird Science'' (film), a 1985 film directed by John Hughes
** ''Weird Science'' (TV series), a television series based on the film
** "Weird Science" (song), the theme song to the film and the TV series by Oing ...
'', ''
Parker Lewis Can't Lose
''Parker Lewis Can't Lose'' is an American teen sitcom that originally aired on Fox from September 1990 to June 1993. It was produced by Clyde Phillips Productions in association with Columbia Pictures Television. During the last season, the ...
'', ''
Dead Like Me
''Dead Like Me'' is an American comedy-drama television series starring Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin as grim reapers who reside and work in Seattle, Washington. Filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, the show was created by Bryan Fuller for ...
'' and ''
Pushing Daisies
''Pushing Daisies'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Bryan Fuller that aired on ABC from October 3, 2007, to June 13, 2009. The series stars Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to l ...
'', both of which under executive producer
Bryan Fuller.
Television creator
In the year 2000 he developed an animated series entitled ''
Baby Blues'' based upon a comic strip. The series first aired on
The WB
The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on terrestrial television, broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture be ...
and later on
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
. Although the show was pulled from the schedule at the conclusion of its thirteen episode first season, a second season of thirteen episodes was produced but never aired. In 2006 he created a
medical drama
A medical drama is a television show or film in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. Most recent medical drama (film and television), dramatic programming go beyond the events pertaining to the chara ...
entitled ''
3 lbs'', which aired on
CBS but was cancelled soon after due to low ratings.
''The Office''
Ocko began working on the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...
sitcom ''
The Office'' at the beginning of its
seventh season as a co-executive producer. He wrote one episode, entitled "
Christening", which aired on November 4, 2010.
''Lodge 49''
Ocko was showrunning and executive producing the
AMC comedy-drama,
Lodge 49, which premiered on August 6, 2018. On October 4, 2018, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on August 12, 2019. More recently, he signed a deal with AMC Studios.
Awards and nominations
Ocko has been nominated for four
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO
* The Writers G ...
awards, one of which he won for his work on ''Not Necessarily the News'' in 1990.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ocko, Peter
American television producers
American television writers
American male television writers
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)