

(written from a Production point of view Real World article

Bryan Fuller (born 27 July 1969; age 51) is a writer for Star Trek. He has worked on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager episodes, creating teleplays and doing writing as well as story work. He was also a regular staff member on Voyager beginning early in the fifth season as a story editor, becoming an executive story editor at the start of the sixth season, and a co-producer for the seventh season. In 2016, Fuller was officially announced as the showrunner of what was then an untitled Star Trek series, later becoming Star Trek: Discovery, due to begin broadcasting in 2017. However, he departed and handed over the reins to Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts as he needed to concentrate on American Gods. He is still credited as an executive producer on the show and also provided the teleplay for the series' first episode and the story for the second and third one.

Fuller stated Star Trek: The Original Series being a childhood favorite, but cited Deep Space Nine as his favorite spinoff series for its "new and innovative" approach to Star Trek and its "character-based" episodes. Fuller commented: "There were lots of new and innovative things going on during Deep Space Nine and that's why it's my favorite of the new series. It was much more character-based". [1]

On 2 March 2009 Fuller told iF Magazine that he was pushing for a new Star Trek TV series based on "old style" Star Trek. In the interview he stated that "I told my agent and told the people of J.J. Abrams' team I want to create another Star Trek series and have an idea that I'm kicking around. I would love to return to the spirit of the old series with the colors and attitude. I loved Voyager and Deep Space Nine, but they seem to have lost the '60s fun and I would love to take it back to its origin." [2]

In 2013, Fuller added, "I think there's something very exciting about the new J.J. Abrams-verse, and there's also kind of an interesting reinvention. How would The Next Generation evolve from that? Where would that be? Where would that go? But there's also... Star Trek is such a big universe, and there are so many places to go with it. I have a very specific idea that I would love to do. We'll see if I ever get the opportunity." [3]

As Discovery showrunner, Fuller has been nominated twice for the fan-driven Dragon Award in 2018 and 2019, shared on both occasions with colleague Alex Kurtzman, neither of which won though.

Career

He is known for creating the television series Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, and Pushing Daisies. He was a consulting producer and writer for the frequently Star Trek referencing sience fiction series Heroes, which earned him an Emmy and Hugo Award nomination. Most recently, he was the showrunner of NBC's Hannibal, and the first season of Starz's adaptation of the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods, which he co-created. He was also attached to a revival of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories.

Aside from Star Trek, Fuller cited The Munsters as his other childhood favorite. (Coincidentally, Fuller produced a pilot reboot of The Munsters titled Mockingbird Lane) He said "They both had a lot to do with creatures and also being inclusive worlds in a way. The Munster family was very much an inclusive world; they allowed any kind of freak flag to fly. And we learned that in Star Trek there is an entire universe out there of different varieties of people – and all of them are okay. It was an early lesson in inclusivity. I was living in a household where my dad didn't want me to watch The Jeffersons because it had black people in it. It was that level of kind of small town 70's suburban racism." [4]

Fuller is openly gay, and has been in a long-term relationship with decorator Scott Roberts.