Alex Kurtzman

Alex Kurtzman is a producer, screenwriter and director who currently serves as main executive producer and "overseer" on all three ongoing live-action and two animated Star Trek series.
Kurtzman co-wrote the script, with frequent collaborator Roberto Orci, for and (the latter also with Damon Lindelof). He also served as executive producer on and producer on .
From 2016 to 2023, Kurtzman served as executive producer on , which he co-created with Bryan Fuller. He was made the lead showrunner (with co-showrunner Michelle Paradise) halfway through the show's second season, replacing Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts. He remained in this capacity for the rest of the series. He also served as executive producer on the companion series .
In 2018, Kurtzman was contracted by CBS All Access to oversee a five year Star Trek expanded universe deal with various series, both live action and animated. In 2021, the deal was expanded to 2026. In this capacity, Kurtzman has been serving as executive producer on , , , and . He co-created Picard with Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, and Kirsten Beyer, and Strange New Worlds with Akiva Goldsman and Jenny Lumet. He will also serve as executive producer on the upcoming film and series.
Kurtzman also wrote several episodes of the aforementioned shows and directed the Discovery second season episode .
In 2010, Kurtzman and Orci were nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Writing for Star Trek. 
Kurtzman and Orci also conceived the story for the Star Trek: Countdown comic miniseries which served as a prequel for the 2009 film. It was followed by the tie-in miniseries Star Trek: Nero, which they also received story credit for. Kurtzman also consulted on the video game.
As Discovery showrunner, Kurtzman has been nominated twice for the fan-driven Dragon Award in 2018 and 2019, shared on both occasions with colleague Bryan Fuller, neither of which won.
== Career ==
===With Roberto Orci===
Kurtzman was born in Los Angeles and met his future writing partner, Roberto Orci in high school. Kurtzman and Orci started their Hollywood career as staff writers on the popular syndicated television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995-99). During the show's fourth season, series star suffered a stroke, and Kurtzman and Orci successfully wrote storylines to deal with his absence, which led to them being promoted to co-executive producers on both Hercules and its spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess. They also worked on Jack Of All Trades with Bruce Campbell.
Kurtzman and Orci have been working with Star Trek producer and director J.J. Abrams for years, having written Paramount Pictures' (2006) and several episodes of (featuring Rachel Nichols and Greg Grunberg). They also wrote the screenplays for (2005, featuring Mary Crosby, with editing by Stuart Baird and music by James Horner), (2005, which featured Ethan Phillips, Glenn Morshower, and Randy Oglesby), (2007, featuring Andy Milder, Glenn Morshower, W. Morgan Sheppard, Michael Shamus Wiles, and the voice of Robert Foxworth), and (2009, featuring the voices of Tony Todd and Robert Foxworth).
They provided the final uncredited rewrite of the screenplay for (2009, starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Stephen McHattie, and Matt Frewer). They also developed and served as executive producers (along with Abrams and Bryan Burk) on (2008-12, starring Joshua Jackson and John Noble, featuring Kirk Acevedo, Leonard Nimoy and Orla Brady).
Kurtzman and Orci also served as executive producers on , which featured the vocal talents of Tania Gunadi, James Horan, Jeffrey Combs, Frank Welker, Tony Todd, Clancy Brown, Nolan North, and Dwayne Johnson.
Kurtzman and Orci wrote the screenplay for , featuring a cameo by Stan Lee, creator of the titular character. They co-created and executive produced , featuring John Noble, Marti Matulis, Derek Mears, John Cho, Clancy Brown, and Bill Irwin in recurring roles and , which starred Daniel Dae Kim and featured guest appearances by William Sadler and Sidney Liufau among others.
In addition to writing, Orci and Kurtzman also produced films through their production company, Kurtzman/Orci (aka K/O Paper Products, reflecting the partnership's origins as script writers). Some of the films being produced by K/O include (2008) and (2009). They also served as executive producers on .
===Solo work===
Virtually joined at the hip for over two decades and once considered one of Hollywood's most successful production duos, the Kurtzman/Orci partnership started to dissolve from 2014 onward for otherwise undisclosed reasons, though Kurtzman later went on record, stating, "We grew in different directions. The kinds of stories we wanted to tell changed. We have such deep love and respect for each other that neither of us wanted to pull in the wrong direction." On 22 April 2014, it was announced that the two men would no longer collaborate on feature film productions, whereas their collaboration on television productions was definitively terminated in 2016, though they finished up the three aformentioned series they started together. The 2014 split had already forced Kurtzman to incorporate his own production company in August of the same year, Secret Hideout, under which he presently produces the Star Trek television properties.
In 2012, Kurtzman released his directorial debut, People Like Us, starring Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks. In the mid 2010s, he was tapped by Universal to oversee their proposed "Dark Universe" film saga, consisting of modernized remakes of their old monster films. In this capacity, Kurtzman produced and directed 2017's The Mummy, which starred Sofia Boutella and Annabelle Wallis and featured Javier Botet, his first major theatrical film project without Roberto Orci. However, The Mummy turned out to be both a critical and commercial flop, and plans for the "Dark Universe" were subsequently discarded.
After the failure of The Mummy, Kurtzman has withdrawn from K/O Paper Products, which was reorganized after the departure of Orci.
Alongside his Star Trek work, Kurtzman also worked as executive producer on a number of other television projects. He was an executive producer on (2017-18), starring Santiago Cabrera and featuring Mark Moses in a recurring role. Kurtzman and Star Trek collaborator Jenny Lumet co-created and executive produced (2021), with Grace Lynn Kung, and (2022, with Kate Mulgrew). All three shows have been cancelled after one season.
Kurtzman currently lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife, Samantha Kurtzman-Counter, and their son, Jack. 
==Star Trek appearances==
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==Directing credits==
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==Writing credits==
* (with Roberto Orci)
* (with Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof)
* 
** (story with Bryan Fuller)
** (with Michelle Paradise and Jenny Lumet)
** (with Michelle Paradise and Jenny Lumet)
** (with Michelle Paradise and Jenny Lumet)
** (with Michelle Paradise and Jenny Lumet)
** (with Michelle Paradise and Jenny Lumet)
* (with Jenny Lumet)
* (story with Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer and James Duff)
* (story with Akiva Goldsman and Jenny Lumet)
==Producing credits==
* – Executive Producer
* – Producer
* (all episodes) – Executive Producer
* (all episodes) – Executive Producer
* (all episodes) – Executive Producer
* (all episodes) – Executive Producer
* (all episodes) – Executive Producer
* (all episodes) – Executive Producer
== External links ==
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