Roberto Orci
Roberto Gaston Orcí (born July 20, 1973) is a Mexican-American film and television screenwriter and producer. He began his longtime collaboration with Alex Kurtzman while at school in California. Together they have been employed on television series such as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. In 2008, together with J. J. Abrams, they created Fringe. In 2013, they created Sleepy Hollow alongside Phillip Iscove. Orci and Kurtzman's first film project was Michael Bay's The Island, and due to that partnership they went on to write the scripts for the first two films of the Transformers film series. Orci first became a film producer with 2008's Eagle Eye and again with 2009's The Proposal.
Roberto Orci
Bob Orci
Screenwriter, film, television producer, director, film editor
1997–present
J. R. Orci (brother)
He and Kurtzman since returned to working with Abrams on Mission: Impossible III and both Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. Between 2005 and 2011, Kurtzman and Orci's film projects took revenues of more than $3 billion. In April 2014, Orci and Kurtzman announced that they would only collaborate in television projects, and Orci worked on the third Star Trek film, Star Trek Beyond, until being replaced the following December. Orci created the television series Matador for the El Rey Network, but after this was initially renewed, it was cancelled at the end of the first season. Both Kurtzman and Orci continue to work as producers on the television series Limitless and Scorpion. Orci was awarded the Norman Lear Writer's Award and the Raul Julia Award for Excellence, in addition to shared awards and nominations including The George Pal Memorial Award.
Early life[edit]
Orci was born in Mexico City on July 20, 1973,[1][2] to a Mexican father and a Cuban mother.[1] Orci grew up in Mexico, and moved with his family to the United States at the age of 10.[3] He was raised in Texas, Los Angeles and Canada.
He met his longtime friend and collaborator Alex Kurtzman when both were 17-year-old students at Crossroads, a privately funded school in Santa Monica, California.[4] The first time they came across each other was in a film class,[5] where they discovered each other's love for films and in particular the Steven Soderbergh film Sex, Lies, and Videotape.[6] The duo found that they had a number of things in common, as Kurtzman had previously lived in Mexico City and the two could relate. Orci later called him an "honorary Hispanic".[7] Orci went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin.[4] The duo got together once again, and began to write scripts. These included one called Misfortune Cookies which Orci described as "loosely autobiographical",[8] and Last Kiss, which Kurtzman said was their version of The Breakfast Club but was set in a lunatic asylum.[8]
Awards and accolades[edit]
The Hollywood Reporter listed Orci as one of the 50 most powerful Latinos in Hollywood of 2007.[46] His first solo accolade was the Norman Lear Writer's Award at the Imagen Awards in 2009. He described the experience of receiving an award without Kurtzman as "bizarre".[5] Orci has also been awarded the Raul Julia Award for Excellence by the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts.[47] Together with Kurtzman, Orci won The George Pal Memorial Award at the 2010 Saturn Awards.[48]
Orci and Kurtzman were both honored by the nonprofit organization Chrysalis at the Butterfly Ball on June 8, 2013. The organization raises money for homeless people and low-income families, Orci said that "When you hear the life stories from people right here in our own community, who are clients at Chrysalis, and when you come to learn of their lowest moments and how Chrysalis has led to their proudest triumphs, it's easy to see why this local organization is so impactful."[49]
In 2017, Orci was the recipient of the "Visionary Impact Award" by the National Hispanic Media Coalition.[50] This award is given out by the organization for "Latinos making outstanding contributions to the positive portrayals of Latinos in film and TV".[51]