Alex Kurtzman

Alex Kurtzman
Alex Kurtzman speaking at San Diego Comic-Con International 2014
Born	(1973-09-07) September 7, 1973 (age 43) Los Angeles, California, United States
Other names	Alexander Kurtzman, Alexander Hilary Kurtzman
Occupation	Writer, producer, director
Spouse(s)	Samantha Counter (m. 2002)

Alex Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American film and television writer, producer and director.

Kurtzman was born and raised to a secular Jewish family in Los Angeles, California, where he met his high school friend and longtime collaborator Roberto Orci. He attended Wesleyan University.

Kurtzman first teamed with Orci on television on the syndicated series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, for the television unit of Pacific Renaissance Pictures, then operating out of Universal International. After they produced several storylines to cope with the absence of lead actor Kevin Sorbo following a stroke that Sorbo had suffered during the fourth season, Kurtzman and Orci were placed in charge of the show. They were both aged 24. They moved into films after they were asked to rewrite Michael Bay's The Island. The film earned $162 million at the worldwide box office, on a budget of $126 million, which was a enough of a success that they were brought to write Bay's Transformers, which earned $710 million. Though The Island, Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were not particularly well received by critics, the three films earned a combined $1.7 billion. They wrote the 2009 film Star Trek alongside J. J. Abrams, with whom they had co-created the Fox science-fiction series Fringe. After the pilot, Kurtzman served as consulting producer on the show for the remainder of its run.