Haris Orkin

After receiving a B.A. from Beloit College and an MFA in Creative Writing from USC, Haris soon realized he had no discernible skills with which to make a living.  This despite being a finalist in the American Theater Festival for his one act play, Armageddon.  Advertising beckoned.

 

After several years writing and producing award winning radio and television commercials, Haris sold his first screenplay, Save the Dog, which was later produced as a Disney Sunday Night movie.

His play, Dada was produced at The American Stage, The Nebraska Rep, and the La Jolla Playhouse.   Nobody Lives Forever has been performed at The John Harmon Theater and The Player’s Club in New York City.  

 

His original screenplay, A Saintly Switch, was produced by Disney.   It was directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starred David Alan Grier and Viveca Fox.

 

Haris has also written scripts for Universal, Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox,  and Paramount.   

In 2005, Haris broke into the world of game narrative when he wrote the script for Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard, developed by Liquid Entertainment and published by Atari.   He wrote a game for the Kingdom Hearts franchise for Disney and Square Enix that same year.

 

Call of Juarez, a game he wrote for Techland and Ubisoft  was released in 2007.  Kane's Wrath, the expansion to the best-selling Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars, was released in 2008.

 

Red Alert 3 for EALA came out in late 2008 and Haris received a Writer's Guild Award nomination for best video game script.  Ubisoft and Techland released Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood in June 2009 to strong sales and excellent reviews.  

 

Dead Island was released in 2011 and was one of the top selling titles of the year.  In 2013,  Company of Heroes 2 for Relic Entertainment and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger for Ubisoft and Techland were both released.  

 

2015 saw the release of Hard West (Creative Forge) and Dying Light for Techland and Warner Brothers Interactive.  It was one of the top selling games of the year. 

 

Tom Clancy's The Division (Ubisoft) and Mafia 3 (2K) came out in 2016.  Mafia 3 was nominated for a BAFTA award for best writing in a video game. 

 

In 2017 Ruiner (Reikon Games) and Get Even (Bandai Namco) were both released to wide acclaim. 

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The interactive audio comedy "They Came In Outer Space" was released by Earplay in 2019.  Ghostrunner (One More Level) arrived on multiple platforms in 2020.

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In Spring of 2022, Black Rose Writing published books 1, 2, and 3 of the James Flynn Escapades.  The comedy thrillers garnered great reviews and impressive sales. That same year saw the release of Shadow Warrior 3 (Flying Wild Hog) and As Dusk Falls (Xbox Game Studios).

 

Evil West (Flying Wild Hog) and Resident Evil Village: Shadow of Rose (Capcom) are both slated to be released this fall. 

 

Haris has contributed chapters to two books put out by the International Game Developer’s Association.  Writing for Video Game Genres  and Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing were both published by A.K. Peters.