Age: 36
Residence: Whitby, Ontario
Agency: The Alpern Group (Toronto)
Buzz: Snagged a Canadian Screenwriting award for his work on season one of Flashpoint then landed writing gigs on Shattered and the red-hot Rookie Blue

You could say Adam Barken has a flair for the dramatic – certainly if you were describing his professional work.

His love for TV drama writing has led to a career that’s been accelerating in the last two years. Initially drawn to film, this screenwriter penned a play that was optioned by the folks who have since formed Montreal prodco Seville Pictures. The Drive (2006), however, “received fairly scathing reviews,” Barken recounts good-naturedly. Shortly after, he realized that work in the feature field was few and far between.

So he turned to the small screen and while working at the CFC, where he says he got his “big break,” he met Gemini-nominated writer and producer-in-residence Barbara Samuels (North of 60). They immediately clicked. She introduced him to producer Anne Marie La Traverse, who brought him on board to write for a new series called Sniper, which later became Flashpoint.

Barken first came on as a story editor, then returned for season two as a senior story editor. “It was really gratifying to put a show on that Canadians embraced. It really defied a lot of conventions, like ‘Canadians don’t watch Canadian shows,’ or ‘Canadians don’t need another cop procedural,'” he says. “We were able to say, ‘That’s pretty much all bullshit,’ and we can make a show that’s fun and exciting to watch that will appeal to a broad range of people.”

After Flashpoint – and after snagging the honours for episodic hour-long at the WGC Screenwriting Awards in 2009 – he decided to explore his options. His followed fellow writer and executive producer Tassie Cameron to Rookie Blue, where he co-penned the season finale, and now Barken has also been tapped as a showrunner for a yet-to-be-named pilot.

He’s feeling confident in his career right now and in the projects he’s choosing, noting that dramas sell well internationally and that “a good procedural can make a company.”

“We’re in a time when every single major Canadian network has a hit hour-long and I can’t remember the last time that was,” he observes. “When I was at the CFC, everyone was saying the hour-long was dead and that no one wanted pilots, and now we’re in a marketplace where everyone’s doing pilots and hour-longs are where it’s at.”