- Born
- Died
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- 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.- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
- SpousesAdele Heather Taylor(June 6, 2020 - February 25, 2025) (his death)Melissa Blake(? - March 2020) (divorced)
- Born in Mexico City, Mexico, from a Mexican father and a Cuban mother. His family left Mexico for Texas when he was 10 years old. Finally, they settled in Los Angeles, where he met his associate, Alex Kurtzman.
- Attended Spring Woods High School in Houston, Texas with professor and economist Glen Whitman. He would subsequently name a character for him in Transformers (2007), and hire him as a writer and executive story editor for Fringe (2008).
- (July 26, 2007) Was named #35 in The Hollywood Reporter's "Latino Power 50".
- Married Adele Heather Taylor on June 6th 2020 in a private ceremony.
- He met his longtime friend and collaborator Alex Kurtzman when both were 17-year-old students at Crossroads, a private school in Santa Monica, California. The first time they came across each other was in a film class, where they discovered each other's love for films and in particular the Steven Soderbergh film Sex, Lies, and Videotape.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content