David Koepp is an American screenwriter, director and novelist. Born on June 9, 1963, in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, he studied acting at the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin–Madison before enrolling at UCLA's film school. His connection to UFOs comes almost entirely through Disclosure Day, the 2026 Steven Spielberg film about an attempt to reveal extraterrestrial life, for which he wrote the screenplay from Spielberg's story.

Koepp broke through in 1993 with Carlito's Way and Jurassic Park, which he co-wrote with Michael Crichton. He went on to write or co-write Mission: Impossible, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, Panic Room, Angels & Demons and, more recently, Kimi, Presence, Black Bag and Jurassic World Rebirth. As a director he made Stir of Echoes, Secret Window and Premium Rush, and he has published two novels, Cold Storage (2019) and Aurora (2022). By US box-office receipts he ranks among the most successful screenwriters on record.

His partnership with Steven Spielberg runs through Jurassic Park, The Lost World, the 2005 War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Their reunion on an original UFO film was confirmed in April 2024. Spielberg supplied a detailed treatment, and Koepp went on to write 42 drafts, the most of his career, according to Vanity Fair. Universal released the film on June 12, 2026, with Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor in the lead roles. Koepp told interviewers that the script deliberately avoids the word "alien," using terms such as "extraterrestrial" and "non-human biologics," partly because the word also carries an immigration meaning, and that the aim was to fold existing UFO lore into a credible story.

The release coincided with the federal government's 2026 UFO file releases, and online theories held that the film was a government-backed soft launch of real disclosure. Koepp told SFX magazine that he loved that theory but added, "I was never contacted by a member of the government on this." In a June 2026 interview on NewsNation's Katie Pavlich Tonight, he gave his personal view that extraterrestrial life is "a mathematical certainty," and NewsNation reported that he had studied congressional testimony and government documents before writing.

Disclosure Day drew generally favorable reviews and passed $240 million at the worldwide box office by August 2026. For Koepp, it extended a three-decade run of Spielberg spectacles into the subject of government secrecy about non-human life, and his interviews, which separated the production from the government's releases while voicing his own belief in extraterrestrial life, became part of the year's disclosure coverage.