Michael Risner

Michael Risner is an assistant director and producer who worked as DGA Trainee and Second Second Assistant Director on Star Trek: Voyager and as Second Second Assistant Director and Second Assistant Director on Star Trek: Enterprise.

Between 1979 and 1984, Risner attended the University of Florida and earned a BA in English and Film History. The following year he worked as news cameraman for the nightly news on WCJB TV-20 in Gainesville, Florida. In 1985 he became Bureau chief photographer for the WPTV News and participated in the creation of travel series and news until 1990. Until 1994 he worked as freelance video photographer for production companies based in Florida and since 1994 he is working as freelance assistant director, producer, and unit production manager in the entertainment industry.

Risner joined the Director's Guild of America in 1994 and started to work as DGA Trainee on the television series Models, Inc. (1994, with semi-regular actor Robert Beltran), Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1995, with regulars Joe Lando and Chad Allen), Murder, She Wrote (1995), and 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996), the thriller The Net (1995), the action thriller Twister (1996), the comedy House Arrest (1996), and the television drama Mary & Tim (1996).

The next years he worked as second assistant director on the comedy series Cybill (1997), the comedy series NewsRadio (1996-1999), the drama series Judging Amy (1999-2000), and the movie A View from the Swing (2000), as first assistant director on Robert Duncan McNeill's short films The Battery (1998, with Ethan Phillips, Karen Austin, and editor Daryl Baskin) and 9mm of Love (2000, with Ethan Phillips, Liz Vassey, Patricia Tallman, editor Daryl Baskin, second assistant director David Trotti, and special effects artists Dick Brownfield and Mark Stimson), and as second second assistant director on the hit drama series ER (1999-2000).

Following the end of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005, Risner worked as first assistant director on the short science fiction thriller Transgressions (2006), as second assistant director on the television drama Wanted (2005) and the comedy series Crumbs (2006), as assistant director on the short comedy Paris in Jail: The Music Video (2007), the news programs Access Hollywood (2007) and Showbiz Tonight (2007), and the short comedies Harry Potter in the Hood (2007) and Lindsay Fully Loaded (2007), and as second second assistant director on the television series Less Than Perfect (2003-2006, starring Andy Dick), Rules of Engagement (2007), and Moonlight (2007, along with fellow assistant directors Babu Subramaniam and Noon Orsatti).

More recently Risner was the second assistant director on the comedy series Accidentally on Purpose (2009).

Star Trek credits
(This list is currently incomplete.)
 * As DGA Trainee
 * (uncredited) (Season 1)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * As Second Assistant Director
 * (Season 1)
 * As Second Second Assistant Director
 * (Season 7)
 * (uncredited) (Season 1)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
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 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * Key Second Assistant Director
 * (uncredited) (Season 1)
 * (Photo shooting only) (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * As Second Unit Assistant Director
 * - First and Second Assistant Director (uncredited)
 * - Second Assistant Director (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * Key Second Assistant Director
 * (uncredited) (Season 1)
 * (Photo shooting only) (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * (uncredited)
 * As Second Unit Assistant Director
 * - First and Second Assistant Director (uncredited)
 * - Second Assistant Director (uncredited)
 * - First and Second Assistant Director (uncredited)
 * - Second Assistant Director (uncredited)