Peter Ackerman has an ear for comic exchanges, though the jointly written Ice Age can overwork them. We prefer the television dramas he has helped write, especially The Americans, though a shared writing credit can only tell us so much.
Fi1m perspective
In Ice Age (2002), Ray Romano gives Manny enough weary warmth to make the screenplay’s extra pleas for affection unnecessary. We liked him already, which made those appeals mildly irritating. Peter Ackerman shares the screenplay credit with Michael J. Wilson and Michael Berg, and the same overworking affects the banter: an amusing relationship must keep producing another line. It remains a likeable, brisk comedy, but we were happier watching Scrat pursue his acorn than hearing another glib exchange.
Stage comedy supplied Ackerman’s route into animation. His debut play, Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight (1999), led to his being hired on Ice Age, initially for comedy punch-ups. He later co-wrote Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), continuing the family-animation work. Adding jokes was part of the job; our reservation about Ice Age is that the finished screenplay does not always know when it has enough.
The Americans (2013) is the substantial change of pace: Ackerman wrote eight episodes and rose to co-executive producer. Under showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, the series gives its marriage as much attention as its espionage, taking time to make both matter. Its patience is what we value most, even though it is slow to begin. It is the strongest work here, but it would be careless to assign the whole series’ strengths to one of its writers.
The Diplomat (2023), where Ackerman is a writer and co-executive producer, brings the pleasure of prickly exchanges forward again. Working with showrunner Debora Cahn, he contributes to a series whose chief asset is Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell making each other’s lives difficult. We recommend it with a reservation: the politics receive less scrutiny than they need, while the relationships are good enough to keep us watching. Begin there for the argumentative company; give The Americans time if a slow start does not put you off.
Biography
Peter Ackerman is an American screenwriter, television writer and producer, playwright, actor and author. He began his career as an actor in the film Astronomy of Errors (2000) and in Off-Broadway productions before moving into writing.
As a screenwriter he contributed to the animated features Ice Age (2002), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019). On television he has written for The Americans and Amazing Stories, and served as writer and co-executive producer on The Diplomat (2023–). He received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the 2025 episode 'Amagansett' of The Diplomat.
Ackerman has also written the children's books The Lonely Typewriter and The Lonely Phone Booth.
