Kevin Grevioux - Black Creator Behind Underworld and More

#RunTheCulture

Kevin Grevioux is an actor, screenwriter, and comic book writer for The Culture. He is best known for his role as Raze in the Underworld film series. But what you might not know is that he is the co-creator and co-writer of the blockbuster Hollywood film franchise.

TV & Film

Grevioux is a graduate of the prestigious HBCU Howard University (with a degree in microbiology with minors in both chemistry and psychology). He then began his graduate studies working towards a master’s degree in genetic engineering. But on the side Grevioux began taking screenwriting and cinematography classes. The creative bug took hold and after his first semester of grad school, he dropped out and moved to Los Angeles to make it in the entertainment world.

Thanks to his chiseled physique and deep booming voice, his acting career was first to take off. Grevioux has been seen in such films as The Mask, Steel, Congo, the 2003 Planet of the Apes remake, and of course the baby he helped create, the 2003 vampire vs. werewolf film, Underworld.

Underworld was Grevioux’s first writing project to make it to screen. He came up with the original concept and wrote the original screenplay along with director Len Wiseman. He appears in the film himself as a lycan (werewolf), Raze, and returned as the character in the Underworld prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

Grevioux decide to use Romeo and Juliet as an archetype. But he also incorporated his collegiate background and brought a scientific element to the world of vampires and werewolves by basing vampirism and lycanthropy on a viral mutagen instead of the mysticism typically associated with the creatures.

Comics

Grevioux has also been a force in the coming book industry. He’s done an Underworld prequel series with plans to do more. In 2006 he formed not one but two comic book imprints. Astounding Studios focuses on all-ages titles such as Valkyries, Guardian Heroes and The Hammer Kid. The Darkstorm Studios imprint is the mature line and includes the books Alivs Rex, Skull and Guns Uzan, The Mighty, and I, Frankenstein (which he then wrote and sold the screenplay and it was adapted into a major film in 2014). Grevioux has written for Marvel Comics, most famously creating the Blue Marvel and writing his first comic run (Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel). He also wrote ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction for Red 5 Comics. And of course he’s done comic comic related voice work in the cartoon Young Justice playing the villain Black Beetle.

He’s worked on webcomics, hosted the tv show Monster Tracker, on Discovery Channel, and portrayed The Vault Keeper in “EC Comics Presents The Vault of Horror“, a full-cast audio drama series.

Fantasy, sci-fi, horror, comics, all areas of the entertainment field underrepresented by people of color. Kevin Grevioux has not only represented but excelled in them all. He is a true creator for The Culture.