'Criminal Minds' writer now leads UIndyTV: 'Sports or killing people, it's storytelling'

INDIANAPOLIS — Rick Dunkle was plotting inside the broadcast booth as the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Midwest Region Tournament played out on the court at the University of Indianapolis. How could he turn these games, this broadcast, into an edge-of-your-seat, hold-your-breath kind of story. Like a serial killer taking over a town and leaving death in his wake.

You'll have to forgive Dunkle for bringing murder into all of this. The Indiana native turned Hollywood writer spent 12 seasons with "Criminal Minds." He has plenty of plots and drama and alibis running through his mind.

But what Dunkle created in Los Angeles — a wildly popular CBS television crime drama — is really no different than what he was helping his UIndyTV students to create Saturday inside a basketball arena. The fouls, the slam dunks, the bands blaring, the ranting coaches.

"To me, it doesn't matter if it's news, live sports or killing people," Dunkle, 44, said. "It's storytelling."

Dunkle has quite the story of his own to tell, the tale of a writer and producer who left L.A. at the peak of his career to come back to his home state. To start a career in 2022 as an assistant professor of practice in UIndy's department of communication, as general manager of UIndyTV and as adviser to the school's film club.

It's the story of a promise Dunkle made as a 21-year-old Franklin College student that if he ever made it big, he would come back home.

"From the beginning, I told people I'm going to be back one day," Dunkle said. "I'm going to show you what I learned, because I knew a lot of people weren't going to go out to L.A. and do the same."

It is, after all, terrifying to chase a Hollywood dream. But Dunkle chased that dream anyway.

'We may not agree with you, but we will always support you'

As the end of his junior year at Franklin College neared, Dunkle spent spring break in L.A. visiting old friends. As teens, the three of them had put on Starfleet uniforms and filmed "Star Trek" scenes on the edge of a golf course.

When they weren't creating their own shows, they were watching "Doctor Who" and devouring episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." One of those friends was in film school at Columbia College Hollywood. Dunkle went to visit — and he fell in love. He saw things and people he hadn't seen before.

"Franklin was whiter than white. I mean translucently white," said Dunkle, who moved to Franklin when he was 13. "I said something to my parents when I was in California. 'It’s a rainbow of people here.' I realized I needed to be there."

Much to the dismay and chagrin of just about everybody around Dunkle — his college advisers, his parents — he dropped out of college to move to L.A.

"There were few reactions like, 'Yeah, that’s a wonderful idea to drop out of school the summer before your senior year and go to California,'" Dunkle said, "'because (wink, wink) everybody makes it out there."

But the day he was leaving, Dunkle went to tell his parents goodbye. He looked at his dad, a college professor, and his mom, who worked for the federal government, and noticed an extra bag by the door.

"We may not agree with you," his parents told him. "But we will always support you."

Instead of having to sleep in his car at rest stops driving westward alone, his parents drove with him. They made sure he had a hotel to sleep in. And when they arrived in California they "got to see I wasn’t living in an alley," Dunkle said.

He wasn't in an alley, but living in L.A. wasn't easy at first. Dunkle quickly learned why his parents had been hesitant to send their youngest of three sons to Hollywood. There were nights Dunkle slept on friends' couches. There were the tiresome, mundane jobs.

"I did what every person who packs up and moves to Los Angeles does," Dunkle said. "I worked at Starbucks and I waited tables." He doled out coffee in the mornings and, at night, served steaks and fried onions at a roadhouse grill with peanut shells scattered on the ground.

Dunkle was stabilizing, he said, trying to plant his roots. Trying to chase his dreams.

Soon, Dunkle was stable enough to apply, and was admitted, to Columbia College, the film school his friend attended. And as Dunkle worked toward a bachelor of arts in cinema and television production, his first big Hollywood break came.

"That’s really what ultimately changed my life," Dunkle said, "completely changed my life."

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Road to 'Criminal Minds'

Edward Allen Bernero, co-creator of the NBC crime drama television series "Third Watch," was teaching a TV drama class at Columbia College. His daughter attended the school.

"All I heard was Ed Bernero, TV show, six students, one is the daughter," said Dunkle, who was in his final year of college at the time and who wanted desperately to get into that class.

Dunkle camped out the night before registration opened (online scheduling didn't exist) and he was the first student registered for Bernero's class. As the course played out, Bernero asked students to choose a television show and write a script. Dunkle picked "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

"When he read my script, he wasn’t a fan of Buffy, but he said, 'You’ve got real talent here,'" Dunkle said. "'There is a place for you in this industry if you want.' That was my motivator."

Dunkle enrolled at Loyola Marymount University to earn a master of fine arts degree. He wanted to write for television. He soon landed work in L.A., in television marketing departments, in research departments and other jobs that paid well.

"I didn’t hate it, but it was a very corporate thing and it wasn’t what I came to L.A. to do," he said. "I wanted to work on shows." He wanted to write for shows.

Dunkle sent an email to Bernero, whom he had stayed in contact with after that class he taught. It was a plea: "I want to come learn from you."

Bernero invited Dunkle to lunch. The two started talking. And before lunch was served, Bernero had offered Dunkle a script coordinator position on a new show he was producing. It was a show that would eventually be known as "Criminal Minds."

"It paid one third of what I was making, but I did not hesitate," Dunkle said. "I knew there was no way I was turning this down."

Dunkle's script coordinator job soon turned to small opportunities writing for the show. And just before Dunkle's 30th birthday, he got a chance to pitch an episode of "Criminal Minds," to write an entire script.

Everyone on the set, including the cast, loved it. And a "Star Trek"-loving, Franklin, Indiana, kid's Hollywood career launched.

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Making good on a promise

The first show Dunkle wrote for "Criminal Minds," Season 4, Episode 20, aired in April 2009, titled "Conflicted." The episode was about a group of male college students on spring break in South Padre Island, who were being raped and murdered. The Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI was called in and suspected a shy hotel cleaner and a receptionist.

Dunkle loved the thrill of creating stories that captivated audiences and kept them guessing until the very end. He also loved the stars he got to work alongside.

In one of Dunkle's episodes, Mark Hamill (best known as Luke Skywalker in "Star Wars") was cast as a killer. Hamill played John "The Replicator" Curtis, who went on to become one of the program's most dangerous criminals, armed with a genius IQ of 172.

Dunkle loved, too, finding ways to bring his hometown into "Criminal Minds" scripts. He would write in characters with the last name "Franklin." He wrote an episode that took place in Franklin, Alaska.

He never forgot his promise to come back home.

Dunkle made good on that promise in 2022. After two decades in L.A., he had absorbed the life of a Hollywood writer and producer and he knew it was time. "One of the things about working out there, your life is beholden to the production you are on," Dunkle said.

As he drove across the California state line, he got a notification that UIndy was hiring an assistant professor and TV director. He applied and got the job.

These days, Dunkle is putting on live NCAA basketball tournaments with students and helping them produce live news. Inside the classroom, he is teaching young minds what it means to chase really big dreams.

"Of course my initial thoughts were how cool it was to have a professor who was involved with 'Criminal Minds.' I’m a big fan of the show," said Hannah Haerle, a student who works for UIndyTV. "Even better, though, was to realize what an amazing opportunity we have to learn from someone with so much talent and experience."

While Dunkle's Hollywood accolades stand out, his academic standing is just as worthy, said Dr. Rebecca Gilliland, chair of UIndy's department of communication, noting Dunkle's Master of Fine Arts.

"Everyone can talk about his dynamic past with 'Criminal Minds' and that's fantastic, but what a lot of people don't realize is his academic prowess is pretty impressive," she said. "The energy that he brings to the department, the students definitely can relate to and identify with him, but at the same time there's a respect.

"He's pretty much a mentor that you don't run across every day."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana native Rick Dunkle wrote 'Criminal Minds.' Now GM of UIndyTV