Alex Kurtzman, born September 7, 1973, in Los Angeles, California, USA, is a motion picture writer and producer. He works with writing partner Roberto Orci. He has worked as a producer and writer on Fringe. He was initially an Executive Producer on the first season. He left that role after the initial thirteen episodes had been produced and became a Consulting Producer, continuing to write episodes. Kurtzman and Orci co-wrote the screenplays for the film Star Trek (2009). They co-wrote Transformers (2007) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) for director Michael Bay. His other credits as a writer include Alias and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
In 2011, Forbes magazine described Orci and Kurtzman as "Hollywood's Secret Weapons" as, over the course of the previous six years, their films had grossed a combined total of over $3 billion at the box office. The partnership also wrote People Like Us, originally known as Welcome to People, which was Kurtzman's theatrical directorial debut.
On 3 March 2016, it was announced that Kurtzman would be an executive producer on what was then an untitled Star Trek series, later named Star Trek: Discovery. In addition to being one of several executive producers, he is credited as creator of the series alongside Bryan Fuller and has written one episode. He was made the lead showrunner halfway through the show's second season, replacing Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts.