Lenkov: I Just Wanted To Entertain

If at first you don't succeed...

As a Communications Studies student at Montreal's Concordia University in the 1980s, Peter Lenkov didn't feel like he fit in. "All the other kids were talking about how they wanted to make a difference, and I knew I just wanted to entertain," Lenkov said in a phone interview with the Concordia Journal. While recently flipping through some scripts he wrote as a student, the CSI: New York executive producer came across some disparaging comments from a professor. "She wrote a three-page letter and she absolutely hated it," he explained. "She said it was fluff and had no social significance."

Lenkov said the letter helped him make up his mind. "It gave me so much insight into who I was," he said. "I realized I wanted to write entertainment." He left Concordia before he graduated and headed to Los Angeles, where he tried to get a script into the hands of a producer. After multiple rejections, Lenkov ended up in the elevator with the latest producer that had rejected his script. "She turned to me and said, 'you really should pursue this, you have talent,'" he explained.

With that encouragement, Lenkov decided to move to Los Angeles. "I had no idea what I was getting into," he said. Since then, Lenkov has worked on a number of shows, films and even comic books. "I love my job, I get to write every day," he said. "This is what I dreamed of as a kid, I would do it for free."

The original interview is from the Concordia Journal.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!