Ken Levine began his career as a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures and a playwright in New York. After joining the games industry in 1995, Levine created the original story and game design for Looking Glass Studios' Thief: The Dark Project.

In 1997, he founded Irrational Games (later 2K Boston / Ghost Story Games), with the company's first project being System Shock 2, of which Levine was lead designer. Following that, Levine was most notably the project director and lead writer of BioShock and BioShock: Infinite.