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René Echevarria is an American
screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...
and producer. He has worked on a number of television series, including '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', '' Dark Angel'' and ''
Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
''. He created ''
The 4400 ''The 4400'' (pronounced "the forty-four hundred") is a science fiction television series produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in association with BSkyB, Renegade 83, and American Zoetrope for USA Network in the United States and Sky On ...
'' for
USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...
, ''
Carnival Row ''Carnival Row'' is an American fantasy television series created by René Echevarria and Travis Beacham, based on Beacham's unproduced film spec script, ''A Killing on Carnival Row''. The series stars Orlando Bloom, Cara Delevingne, Simon M ...
'' for Amazon, and was
show runner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...
on '' Terra Nova''.


Early life, family and education

René Echevarria was born in
St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...
. He has a
Cuban-American Cuban Americans ( or ) are Americans who immigrated from or are descended from immigrants from Cuba. As of 2023, Cuban Americans were the fourth largest Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic and Latino American group in the United States aft ...
background. He attended St. Petersburg Catholic High School. Before attending university, he was expecting to follow his father into medicine. However, while attending
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
, he joined a production of '' The Real Inspector Hound'' and decided to go into the theatrical arts. He graduated from Duke in 1984, having majored in history.


Career


Early years

After graduating college, Echevarria travelled to New York to start work in theatre. He started work at the Circle Repertory Company, and became assistant director on a production of a play, ''Darts''. He also appeared in plays, including some productions at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and the Chelsea Theater Center. He travelled to the UK with a production of the play ''Prepared'', which was performed both at the World's End Theatre and at the
Edinburgh Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, international, European or UK Premieres), in al ...
.


Screenwriter

Echevarria's first screenwriting credit came after he submitted an unsolicited script to the science fiction series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. After re-writes by both Echevarria and the writing team on the show, this became the episode "
The Offspring The Offspring is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Garden Grove, California, in 1984. Originally formed under the name Manic Subsidal, the band currently consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Dexter Holland, Bryan "Dexter" Holland, ...
". He was hired to redraft " Transfigurations" and was subsequently hired as a writer on the series. During his time working on the series, he wrote over 30 episodes. Following this, he began writing for fellow ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...
'' series, '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''. One of the episodes he co-wrote with Ronald D. Moore, " Trials and Tribble-ations", Erdmann & Block (2000): p. 384 was nominated for the
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is given each year for theatrical films, television episodes, or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. Originally the award covered both ...
. Following ''Star Trek'', he worked on a series of television shows including '' Now and Again'', ''
Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
'', '' Dark Angel'' and '' Medium''.


Producer

Echevarria created ''
The 4400 ''The 4400'' (pronounced "the forty-four hundred") is a science fiction television series produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in association with BSkyB, Renegade 83, and American Zoetrope for USA Network in the United States and Sky On ...
'' alongside Scott Peters for
USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...
. He was reunited with one of his colleagues from ''Deep Space Nine'', as Ira Steven Behr was one of the producers on the series. Echevarria was also involved in the development of the ''
Teen Wolf ''Teen Wolf'' is a 1985 American coming-of-age comedy film directed by Rod Daniel and written by Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman. Michael J. Fox stars as the title character, a high school student whose ordinary life is changed when he discover ...
'' television series for
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
, where he remained on the series as an executive producer. Echevarria was working as the
show runner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...
on ABC's television adaptation of the film ''
True Lies ''True Lies'' is a 1994 American action comedy film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker, a U.S. government agent, who struggles to balance his double life as a spy with his familial duties, ...
'', when he was asked to take over production duties on the pilot of '' Terra Nova''. This followed the termination of four writers and another producer, amid a series of other issues with the production. The production cost $14 million, and suffered from a three-month delay, and Echevarria and fellow producer Brannon Braga both denied that there was a deliberate axing of staff, attributing it to the movement of the production to Australia. Echevarria subsequently signed a full-time deal with
20th Century Fox Television 20th Television, Inc. (formerly known as TCF Television Productions, Inc., 20th Century-Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Television) is the television studio arm of 20th Century Studios, owned by Disney Television Studios, a division of the Di ...
, the studio behind ''Terra Nova'', as show runner for the television series, and was involved in the promotion of the show. In February 2013, he joined the team on television series ''
Intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...
'' as executive producer and show runner. He left the series during the following July, in a split which was described as amicable. In July 2014, he signed a two-script deal with Legendary Television to develop new series from the back catalogue of the studio.


Notes


References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Echevarria, Rene American science fiction writers American male screenwriters American writers of Cuban descent American television producers Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Living people Writers from St. Petersburg, Florida American male novelists Novelists from Florida Screenwriters from Florida Year of birth missing (living people) American showrunners