Age: 52
Occupation: Director, writer, producer
Previous TIME 100 appearances: 0
He made his name with two popular Oscar-nominated adaptations of Stephen King novels (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) before sinking his chompers into cable-television thrillers. His opening episode of AMC's The Walking Dead (Darabont developed the zombie series from the Robert Kirkman comic) ranked as one of cable's most watched shows ever. He is currently at work on Season 2.