Roberto Orci(1973-2025)
- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Roberto Gaston Orci was born in Mexico City to Roberto Orci Sr. and Macuqui Robau-Garcia, one of four siblings. The family moved from Mexico to Texas when he was eleven years old and subsequently settled in Los Angeles. Orci attended Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica where he met and befriended his future producing and writing collaborator and fellow film buff Alex Kurtzman.
In the wake of further film studies at the University of Texas in Austin, Orci began his career in the late 90s as screenwriter and co-executive producer on episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995) and Xena: Warrior Princess (1995). He worked as a writer, executive producer and executive story editor on the J.J. Abrams spy series Alias (2001) prior to his long-standing creative partnership with Kurtzman on several big budget franchises, including Transformers, Mission Impossible and the Star Trek movie reboots Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016). In developing the relationship between the young emotive Kirk and the young logical Spock, Orci later explained: "We didn't even realize we were writing about ourselves until we were halfway through the script. That was a little embarrassing."
Introduced to science fiction by an uncle during childhood, Orci remained firmly invested in the genre. He was co-creator (with Abrams and Kurtzman), plus writer and executive producer of Fox's excellent sci fi series Fringe (2008), later serving in the same capacities on the supernatural fantasy Sleepy Hollow (2013). According to his 2013 interview regarding the latter: ...we like rich mythologies and we like things to build, and we like the characters to have an emotional memory, but we are also dealing with a treasured short story. Some of the elements are familiar to audiences and allow us to anchor the show in something that audiences may already know about, so it's potentially easier to follow without necessarily being less rich or less dense." Orci's last credited work was in developing for television (alongside Kurtzman and Peter M. Lenkov) the reboot of Hawaii Five-0 (2010).
Latterly, Orci battled alcoholism, was repeatedly hospitalised and several times in rehab. He died in Los Angeles from kidney disease on February 25 2025, aged just 51.
In the wake of further film studies at the University of Texas in Austin, Orci began his career in the late 90s as screenwriter and co-executive producer on episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995) and Xena: Warrior Princess (1995). He worked as a writer, executive producer and executive story editor on the J.J. Abrams spy series Alias (2001) prior to his long-standing creative partnership with Kurtzman on several big budget franchises, including Transformers, Mission Impossible and the Star Trek movie reboots Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016). In developing the relationship between the young emotive Kirk and the young logical Spock, Orci later explained: "We didn't even realize we were writing about ourselves until we were halfway through the script. That was a little embarrassing."
Introduced to science fiction by an uncle during childhood, Orci remained firmly invested in the genre. He was co-creator (with Abrams and Kurtzman), plus writer and executive producer of Fox's excellent sci fi series Fringe (2008), later serving in the same capacities on the supernatural fantasy Sleepy Hollow (2013). According to his 2013 interview regarding the latter: ...we like rich mythologies and we like things to build, and we like the characters to have an emotional memory, but we are also dealing with a treasured short story. Some of the elements are familiar to audiences and allow us to anchor the show in something that audiences may already know about, so it's potentially easier to follow without necessarily being less rich or less dense." Orci's last credited work was in developing for television (alongside Kurtzman and Peter M. Lenkov) the reboot of Hawaii Five-0 (2010).
Latterly, Orci battled alcoholism, was repeatedly hospitalised and several times in rehab. He died in Los Angeles from kidney disease on February 25 2025, aged just 51.
