---
name: "Roberto Orci"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/roberto-orci"
fi1m_id: "roberto-orci"
imdb_id: "nm0649460"
tmdb_id: 15346
wikidata_id: "Q467500"
roles: ["Writer","Producer"]
born: "20 July 1973"
died: "25 February 2025"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 13
average_fi1m_score: 65
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 10
updated: "2026-10-05T13:12:17.494287+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Roberto Orci

## Identity

Roberto Orci

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/roberto-orci
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** roberto-orci
- **IMDb ID:** nm0649460
- **TMDB ID:** 15346
- **Wikidata ID:** Q467500
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Orci, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q467500, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0649460/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/15346

Writer and producer. Born 20 July 1973 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico [now Mexico City, Mexico]. Died 25 February 2025.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 20 July 1973, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico [now Mexico City, Mexico]
- **Died:** 25 February 2025
- **Active:** 1995–2025
- **Also known as:** Roberto Gaston Orcí, Roberto Orcí, روبيرتو أورسي
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 13: 10 writing, 3 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [Alex Kurtzman](https://film.one/person/alex-kurtzman.md), [J.J. Abrams](https://film.one/person/j-j-abrams.md), [Chris Pine](https://film.one/person/chris-pine.md), [Fred Toye](https://film.one/person/frederick-e-o-toye.md), [Jeff Pinkner](https://film.one/person/jeff-pinkner.md), [J.R. Orci](https://film.one/person/j-r-orci.md), [Zachary Quinto](https://film.one/person/zachary-quinto.md), [Alison Schapker](https://film.one/person/alison-schapker.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 65, as writer, over 10 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 74 (1), 2000s 66 (6), 2010s 60 (5), 2020s 57 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 63 to 60 across 8 titles
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 5 at 60–79, 3 under 60
- **Genres:** Action 6, Adventure 6, Science Fiction 5, Drama 4, Action & Adventure 3, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 2
- **Screen time:** 14 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $3,516m across 6 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Orci, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q467500, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0649460/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/15346

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*Star Trek*](https://film.one/film/star-trek.md) (81), [*Star Trek Beyond*](https://film.one/film/star-trek-beyond.md) (70), [*Hawaii Five-0*](https://film.one/tv/hawaii-five-0.md) (65), [*Star Trek Into Darkness*](https://film.one/film/star-trek-into-darkness.md) (60), [*Now You See Me: Now You Don't*](https://film.one/film/now-you-see-me-now-you-dont.md) (57), [*Transformers*](https://film.one/film/transformers.md) (57)
- **Disney+:** [*Fringe*](https://film.one/tv/fringe.md) (80), [*Alias*](https://film.one/tv/alias.md) (74), [*The Amazing Spider-Man 2*](https://film.one/film/the-amazing-spider-man-2.md) (54)
- **The Roku Channel:** [*Xena: Warrior Princess*](https://film.one/tv/xena-warrior-princess.md) (74)
- **Paramount+:** [*Mission: Impossible III*](https://film.one/film/mission-impossible-iii.md) (70)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Now You See Me*](https://film.one/film/now-you-see-me.md) (53)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Roberto Orci

> Roberto Orci wrote, almost always with Alex Kurtzman, the small story inside the enormous one. When a director gave it room, as in *Star Trek* and *Fringe*, it held; when the machines took over, as in the second *Transformers*, it did not.

Somewhere in the first season of *Fringe*, a programme about impossible things happening to bodies in Massachusetts stops being about the bodies. The scientist in the basement, John Noble's Walter Bishop, turns out to be the point, and what he once did to his son turns out to be the plot. That is the habit Roberto Orci brought to everything he wrote: a small story hidden inside a large one, with the large one there mainly to pay for it. He said as much. He and Alex Kurtzman would work out the character story first and then ask, in his words, "Could we isolate that character story and write it as a $500,000 indie?"

The two of them wrote together from the late 1990s, on *Hercules: The Legendary Journeys* and *Xena: Warrior Princess*, and were running those programmes at 24. *Alias* followed in 2001, then the films: *Mission: Impossible III* (2006), *Transformers* (2007), and in 2009 both *Star Trek* and *Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen*. They created *Fringe* with J.J. Abrams in 2008 and wrote the second *Star Trek* in 2013. The film partnership ended in 2014, and Orci went on to create *Sleepy Hollow* and *Matador* for television. He died in 2025.

The method needs a director willing to sit still for it. In *Star Trek* (2009) the script has to get a familiar crew into place quickly, and Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey cut it so that it does; the jokes and the friendships between Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are good enough that we wanted the film to slow down and let a conversation last. *Fringe* takes most of a season to become the better programme it was always going to be, and when it did we were more moved than a series that opens with a plane full of corpses had any business making us, because the story it turns out to be telling, a father, a son and what the father once did, is kinder than anything the pilot promised. *Alias* is the warning. The more its writers explain what the Renaissance prophet Rambaldi built, the less any of it matters, and we were happier once we stopped following.

It also needs the spectacle to wait, and Michael Bay does not wait. *Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen* (2009) is 150 minutes of complication that never gives the fighting a purpose, and Shia LaBeouf's Sam and Megan Fox's Mikaela never become people we want to sit with between battles. There is no small story to be found under the metal. Critics have said the same about Orci's work more widely, that the emotional beats are familiar and sometimes glib and the blockbuster plotting tangled in the manner of the period. On the evidence of the second *Transformers* they are right. On the evidence of *Star Trek* they are about half right.

Watch *Star Trek*, and give *Fringe* the season it asks for. Leave the second *Transformers* to the machines; it is the one time the indie went in and did not come out.

## Biography

Roberto Orci (20 July 1973 – 25 February 2025) was a Mexican-American screenwriter and producer. Born in Mexico City, he moved with his family to the United States as a child and later attended Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, where he met his frequent collaborator Alex Kurtzman.

Orci began his career writing for television series including *Hercules: The Legendary Journeys* and *Xena: Warrior Princess*. With Kurtzman, he contributed to films such as *Transformers* (2007), *Star Trek* (2009), *Star Trek Into Darkness* (2013) and *The Amazing Spider-Man 2* (2014), and produced entries in the *Now You See Me* franchise, including *Now You See Me* (2013), *Now You See Me 2* (2016) and *Now You See Me: Now You Don't* (2025). He also worked on television series such as *Fringe* and *Hawaii Five-0*.

*Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (13)

### Wrote (10) — the average rests on these

- *The Amazing Spider-Man 2* (2014), Fi1m 54, Executive Producer, Screenplay, Story — [page](https://film.one/film/the-amazing-spider-man-2.md)
- *Star Trek Into Darkness* (2013), Fi1m 60, Producer, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/star-trek-into-darkness.md)
- *Hawaii Five-0* (2010), Fi1m 65, Story, Producer, Creator, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/hawaii-five-0.md)
- *Star Trek* (2009), Fi1m 81, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/star-trek.md)
- *Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen* (2009), Fi1m 34, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/transformers-revenge-of-the-fallen.md)
- *Fringe* (2008), Fi1m 80, Creator, Writer, Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/fringe.md)
- *Transformers* (2007), Fi1m 57, Screenplay, Story — [page](https://film.one/film/transformers.md)
- *Mission: Impossible III* (2006), Fi1m 70, as Party Guest (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/mission-impossible-iii.md)
- *Alias* (2001), Fi1m 74, Executive Producer, Writer, Co-Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/alias.md)
- *Xena: Warrior Princess* (1995), Fi1m 74, Teleplay — [page](https://film.one/tv/xena-warrior-princess.md)

### Produced (3)

- *Now You See Me: Now You Don't* (2025), Fi1m 57, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/now-you-see-me-now-you-dont.md)
- *Star Trek Beyond* (2016), Fi1m 70, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/star-trek-beyond.md)
- *Now You See Me* (2013), Fi1m 53, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/now-you-see-me.md)

## Complete filmography (31)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Now You See Me: Now You Don't* (2025), Producer — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/now-you-see-me-now-you-dont.md)
- *The Mummy* (2017), Executive Producer
- *Star Trek Beyond* (2016), Producer — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/star-trek-beyond.md)
- *Now You See Me 2* (2016), Producer
- *Limitless* (2015), series, Executive Producer
- *Scorpion* (2014), series, Executive Producer
- *Matador* (2014), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *The Amazing Spider-Man 2* (2014), Screenplay, Story, Executive Producer — Fi1m 54, [page](https://film.one/film/the-amazing-spider-man-2.md)
- *Ender's Game* (2013), Producer
- *Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters - Predacons Rising* (2013), Producer, Writer
- *Sleepy Hollow* (2013), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Teleplay, Story, Creator
- *Now You See Me* (2013), Producer — Fi1m 53, [page](https://film.one/film/now-you-see-me.md)
- *Star Trek Into Darkness* (2013), Producer, Writer — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/film/star-trek-into-darkness.md)
- *People Like Us* (2012), Screenplay, Producer
- *Cowboys & Aliens* (2011), Screenplay, Producer
- *Locke & Key* (2011), Executive Producer, Teleplay
- *Transformers: Prime* (2010), series, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Hawaii Five-0* (2010), series, Writer, Producer, Story, Executive Producer, Creator — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/tv/hawaii-five-0.md)
- *Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen* (2009), Writer — Fi1m 34, [page](https://film.one/film/transformers-revenge-of-the-fallen.md)
- *The Proposal* (2009), Executive Producer
- *Star Trek* (2009), Executive Producer, Writer — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/star-trek.md)
- *Eagle Eye* (2008), Producer
- *Fringe* (2008), series, Writer, Producer, Creator — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/fringe.md)
- *Transformers* (2007), Screenplay, Story — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/transformers.md)
- *Mission: Impossible III* (2006), as Party Guest (uncredited) · Writer — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/mission-impossible-iii.md)
- *The Legend of Zorro* (2005), Screenplay, Story
- *The Island* (2005), Screenplay
- *Alias* (2001), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Co-Executive Producer, Supervising Producer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/alias.md)
- *Jack of All Trades* (2000), series, Producer, Writer
- *Xena: Warrior Princess* (1995), series, Teleplay — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/xena-warrior-princess.md)
- *Hercules: The Legendary Journeys* (1995), series, Writer, Teleplay

## Gallery

- ![Roberto Orci](https://film.one/media/person/7713/gallery-3354bd809645.jpg) Roberto Orci — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Roberto_Orci_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg/1280px-Roberto_Orci_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Roberto Orci speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Scorpion", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Please attribu](https://film.one/media/person/7713/gallery-17f32c7654b5.jpg) Roberto Orci speaking at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Scorpion", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Please attribu — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Roberto_Orci_%2814583387419%29.jpg/1280px-Roberto_Orci_%2814583387419%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Sunset on the Beach (2022)](https://film.one/media/person/7713/gallery-cef6677ba06d.jpg) Sunset on the Beach (2022) — Jordanberg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Hawaii_Five-0_Honolulu.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/roberto-orci