---
name: "Eric Kripke"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/eric-kripke"
roles: ["Producer","Director"]
born: "24 April 1974"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "producer"
average_over: 0
updated: "2026-09-17T18:44:48.459306+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Eric Kripke

Producer and director. Born 24 April 1974 in Toledo, Ohio, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Producer, Director
- **Born:** 24 April 1974, Toledo, Ohio, USA
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Kripke, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q336075, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0471392/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/58321

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Boys*](https://film.one/tv/the-boys.md) (72)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Eric Kripke

> Eric Kripke makes genre television with the wiring showing: monsters, capes and time machines built around the people who have to live with them. *The Boys* is the fullest version of that, and it is good, loud and about a season too long.

A man in a cape smiles for the cameras, says the right thing about America, and then, when the cameras are off, does whatever he likes. That is the Eric Kripke shot, and *The Boys* (2019) repeats it for five seasons of eight episodes. Adapted from Garth Ennis's comic, the series asks what superheroes would be like if a company owned them, and answers with Vought, which sells capes the way other firms sell soft drinks. It is the best idea Kripke has had and he knows it, which is why he keeps telling it.

He is listed as a director and he does direct the odd episode, but writing is where he works. After film school he wrote for the short-lived *Tarzan* (2003) and the screenplay for *Boogeyman* (2005), then created *Supernatural* (2005), horror and urban legends hung on a family, and ran it for five seasons before stepping back; it went on for fifteen without him. *Revolution* (2012) and *Timeless* (2016) followed, each lasting two seasons. Then *The Boys*, with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg producing, and the spin-off *Gen V*.

"I'm in the character business," he has said, and on the evidence he means it. Antony Starr's Homelander is a great television monster because the show gives him time: whole scenes of him being adored, or wanting to be, before anything happens. We were more frightened by that smile turned on a crowd than by anything the character does with his hands, and it took us a while to work out why. It is because Kripke lets the performance carry the threat and holds the violence back until it means something. The mythology, as in *Supernatural*, is built to pay off rather than to tease, so questions get answered and the answers hurt.

What he does less well is restraint. *The Boys* is cruder than it is clever; its satire of politics and celebrity is delivered at a shout, then delivered again in case we missed it. It also runs long. The later seasons have episodes that mark time, and the complaints about padding were not unfair. Kripke's shows are at their best when they have a monster in the house and a family to protect from it, and at their weakest when they stop to explain what the monster stands for.

See *The Boys* for Starr, for the corporate comedy of Vought, and for a showrunner who plainly likes his characters more than his targets. Twenty years of network television teach you to keep a series alive at any cost. Ending one on purpose is a different trade, and we will be interested to see whether he has learnt it.

## Biography

Eric Kripke is an American writer, director and television producer. Born on 24 April 1974 in Toledo, Ohio, he graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He began his career directing short films and writing for the series *Tarzan* (2003) before writing the screenplay for the film *Boogeyman* (2005).

Kripke created the long-running series *Supernatural* (2005–2020) and served as its showrunner for the first five seasons. He later created or co-created *Revolution* (2012–2014) and *Timeless* (2016–2018). Since 2019 he has been the showrunner, writer and occasional director of *The Boys* (2019–) for Amazon Prime Video, and he developed the spin-off *Gen V* (2023–).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Boys* (2019), Fi1m 72, Executive Producer, Director, Writer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-boys.md)

## Complete filmography (17)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Gen V* (2023), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator
- *The Winchesters* (2022), series, Original Series Creator
- *The Boys Presents: Diabolical* (2022), series, Executive Producer
- *The Boys* (2019), series, Throwing Ropes Supe (voice) (uncredited), Writer, Director, Executive Producer, Creator — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-boys.md)
- *The House with a Clock in Its Walls* (2018), Screenplay, Producer
- *Timeless* (2016), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Revolution* (2012), series, Writer, Teleplay, Story, Executive Producer, Creator
- *The Adjustment Bureau* (2011), Producer
- *Supernatural: The Anime Series* (2011), series, Creator
- *Ghostfacers* (2010), series, Creator
- *Boogeyman 3* (2008), Characters
- *Boogeyman 2* (2007), Characters
- *Supernatural* (2005), series, Director, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay, Story, Executive Consultant, Creator
- *Boogeyman* (2005), Co-Producer, Screenplay
- *Tarzan* (2003), series, Director, Writer, Co-Executive Producer, Creator
- *Battle of the Sexes* (1998), Executive Producer, Director, Writer
- *Vought Rising*, series, Executive Producer

## Gallery

- ![Eric Kripke](https://film.one/media/person/971126/gallery-6e6831fb10f8.png) Eric Kripke — vagueonthehow (original)
Supernino (derivative work), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Eric_Kripke_2010_%28cropped%29.png/1280px-Eric_Kripke_2010_%28cropped%29.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Ben Edlund, Jim Beaver, Misha Collins, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Eric Kripke & Sera Gamble (2010)](https://film.one/media/person/971126/gallery-f758f32ae3ae.jpg) Ben Edlund, Jim Beaver, Misha Collins, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Eric Kripke & Sera Gamble (2010) — vagueonthehow from Tadcaster, York, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Ben_Edlund%2C_Jim_Beaver%2C_Misha_Collins%2C_Jared_Padalecki%2C_Jensen_Ackles%2C_Eric_Kripke_%26_Sera_Gamble_%284851931245%29.jpg/1280px-Ben_Edlund%2C_Jim_Beaver%2C_Misha_Collins%2C_Jared_Padalecki%2C_Jensen_Ackles%2C_Eric_Kripke_%26_Sera_Gamble_%284851931245%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![The Boys SXSW 2022 Panel](https://film.one/media/person/971126/gallery-15a4631e6e22.jpg) The Boys SXSW 2022 Panel — Daniel Benavides from Austin, TX, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Christian_Slater%2C_Eric_Kripke_%26_Laz_Alonso_%2851958596478%29.jpg/1280px-Christian_Slater%2C_Eric_Kripke_%26_Laz_Alonso_%2851958596478%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![kristin.eonline.com - Comic-Con 2009 - "Supernatural" Panel - San Diego - July 26, 2009](https://film.one/media/person/971126/gallery-cb11a7b51a3e.jpg) kristin.eonline.com - Comic-Con 2009 - "Supernatural" Panel - San Diego - July 26, 2009 — Kristin Dos Santos from Los Angeles, California, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Eric_Kripke%2C_Misha_Collins%2C_Jim_Beaver_%283759534502%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Screenwriter, film director & producer Eric Kripke – Comic-Con 2009 - "Supernatural" Panel - San Diego - July 26, 2009.](https://film.one/media/person/971126/gallery-1704669479cb.jpg) Screenwriter, film director & producer Eric Kripke – Comic-Con 2009 - "Supernatural" Panel - San Diego - July 26, 2009. — Kristin Dos Santos, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Eric_Kripke.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/eric-kripke