|
Michael Piller (born 30 May 1948) is an American television and cinema screenwriter.
Michael Piller was born in Portchester, New York, USA. Michael went to school in New York before taking a creative writing course. The professor for this course told everyone, "There are enough bad writers out there. There needn't be anymore". Michael recalls that the professor would rip up his writing and he would be so broken-hearted. This professor eventually chased him into journalism where Michael won two Emmys for his work as a news producer.
Michael went back to New York for a few years before seeing a "Chorus Line" show and deciding to pursue his writing career. He originally came back to Los Angeles, California as a censor for CBS in the late 1970s. He eventually started writing spec scripts for such TV series as Simon & Simon and Cagney & Lacey before landing a role as a producer on Simon & Simon.
He worked his way through the producer ranks and jumped from series to series before being called in by long-time friend Maurice Hurley who was, at the time, writing and producing episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Michael wrote a few episodes for season three (1989-1990) before becoming a full-fledged Executive Producer. Instead of the old science fiction formula which worked on the original series, he made Star Trek: The Next Generation more about the characters and less about the cool gadgets of the future.
In 1992, Piller and Rick Berman (who was also Executive Producer) decided to create a new series based in the Star Trek Universe. Thus, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) was created. Piller oversaw the writing, casting, budget etc. for two season before Paramount called him in again to create a new series after the cancellation of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1994. Star Trek: Voyager (1995) was born into the television universe as the flagship for the new United Paramount Network (UPN) and has since remained.
Piller left Voyager in 1996 after nine years of working in the Star Trek franchise. He created the ill-fated but critically-acclaimed western for UPN called, Legend (1995) starring Richard Dean Anderson and John de Lancie. Also in 1996, Piller successfully sold his first feature film script entitled, Oversight (1998).
| 
