Salim Akil is an American film and television producer, director, and screenwriter from Oakland, California. He developed the television series Black Lightning based on a DC comics character of the same name. He is a co-founder of Akil Productions which he founded with his wife Mara Brock Akil.

Black Lightning is a superhero appearing in American comic book published by DC Comics. The character, created by writer Tony Isabella with artist Trevor Von Eeden, first appeared in Black Lightning #1, during the Bronze Age of Comic Books. Although his precise origin story has varied over the years, he is generally depicted as a metahuman superhero who uses the ability to generate and control electricity to defend his community – and the world – as Black Lightning. Although not the first black superhero to feature in DC Comics stories, Black Lightning was DC's first African-American superhero to headline his own series.