Peter Ocko

If anything broadly defines the career of writer-producer Peter Ocko, it is the notion of "quirky comedy." He began by contributing as a writer to the 1989 Emmy Awards telecast and helping put together a 1990 reunion episode for HBO cult favorite comedy series "Not Necessarily the News." From there, he has worked his way up the highly competitive writer-producer ladder in Hollywood to earn producer spots on critically acclaimed shows such as "Dead Like Me," "Pushing Daisies," and the American remake of "The Office." He won a W.G.A. Award for his work on a "Not Necessarily the News" episode, and for one of his dramatic detours--another HBO effort--the modernized Western "Deadwood" He received one of his two other W.G.A. nominations in 2006, alongside a nod from the guild in 2008 for "Pushing Daisies." Ocko finally got his shot as a TV-show creator with the strangely named drama "3 lbs.," starring Stanley Tucci as a troublesome neurosurgeon, but the show did not make it past its first season. This came after Ocko did a stint on the beloved David E. Kelley spinoff of "The Practice," "Boston Legal."