Zak Penn is an American screenwriter and director. He wrote and directed Incident at Loch Ness and The Grand and also co-wrote the script for X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and the story for the movie for the film The Avengers (2012). He is the co-inventor of the television series Alphas on the Syfy network. He wrote story for other films such as Last Action Hero (1993), Inspector Gadget (1999), Elektra (2005), The Incredible Hulk (2008) and Ready Player One (2018). His other notable works include Free Guy (2020) and The Suicide Squad (2021).