Dean Devlin (born August 27, 1962) is an American former actor and current screenwriter and producer. Devlin was born in New York City to Don Devlin and Pilar Seurat, both actors. He is Jewish on his father's side and Filipino on his mother's. He married actress Lisa Brenner after the two met while working on The Patriot.
As an actor, Devlin appeared on numerous television shows throughout the 1980s. He also appeared in films including My Bodyguard, The Wild Life, Real Genius and Martians Go Home. Due to his youthful appearance, Devlin often played teenage characters despite being in his 20s. Eventually, he began to concentrate on writing scripts. His first produced screenplay was for Universal Soldier which was a worldwide hit.
He reached prominence as a writer/producer working alongside director Roland Emmerich, with whom he teamed with after appearing in Emmerich's film Moon 44. Together they co-wrote and produced Stargate which became the first movie to have a web site, in which Devlin served as webmaster. The team then produced Independence Day, Godzilla, and The Patriot.
Devlin has since formed his own production company Electric Entertainment, which has produced The Triangle (TV miniseries), Cellular, Who Killed the Electric Car?, and Flyboys. In July 2006, Devlin announced interest in making two sequels to Stargate with MGM, but no official deals were made. He is currently set to make his directorial debut with Ghosting, a paranormal thriller due for release in 2008, and is co-writing with Emmerich a new script for Isobar, a futuristic sci-fi film about a dangerous stowaway on a subterranean luxury liner train on its trip from the United States to Japan.
