Naren Shankar

Naren Shankar is a writer and producer who joined the writing staff of Star Trek: The Next Generation as an intern during the latter half of the fourth season. He then wrote several episodes for The Next Generation and for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and worked as science consultant during the shows sixth season and as story editor during the seventh season. Shankar also contributed to the video games Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity and Star Trek Generations.

He was interviewed by Bill Florence for the article "Naren Shankar - Herald of, published in The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine Vol. 21, pp. 14-18. Shankar describes his position as science consultant as "''...something of a misnomer, because the job generally doens't have a whole lot to do with science. I'm more of a story consultant or creative consultant with scientific overtones. I get involved with the technical jeopardy aspect of episodes.''"

Shankar has a PhD in engineering physics and electrical engineering from Cornell University. But he didn't want to work as scientist and moved to Los Angeles to become a writer. He sent a spec script to Jeri Taylor who didn't want to buy it but liked the writing enough to hire Shankar as writing intern on the show. Shankar himself is a Trekkie and went to the early Star Trek conventions in the 1970s. (The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine Vol. 21, p. 17)

After his time on Star Trek, Shankar became an associate producer on  during its final season and also wrote several episodes for the series. He then became a writer for The Outer Limits from 1997 through 1999, working with Harlan Ellison, among others. After stints as a writer and executive producer of the Sci-Fi Channel's Farscape and NBC's short-lived UC: Undercover, Shankar became a consulting producer and head writer on the hit CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He has earned a number of award nominations for his work on this program, including two Emmy Award nominations, shared with his fellow producers. He served as executive producer on CSI until 2010, and continues to write for the series, including the Trek-spoofing episode "A Space Oddity" featuring Liz Vassey, Wallace Langham, Kate Vernon, and Ronald D. Moore. Shankar also made his directing debut with the tenth season episode "Working Stiffs" (2009) for which he also wrote the story. This episode features Trek alumni Wallace Langham, Liz Vassey, Tracy Middendorf, and Tom Virtue.

Between 2011 and 2012, Shankar joined the production team of the fantasy television series Grimm as writer and executive producer. Steve Oster worked as producer on this series and Barney Burman as special effects makeup designer and creator.

In 2013, Shankar was named executive producer for the futuristic television series Almost Human, produced by J.J. Abrams and starring Karl Urban.

Star Trek credits

 * As Writer
 * (Season 5, with Ronald D. Moore)
 * (Season 6)
 * (teleplay)
 * (with Joe Menosky)
 * (Season 7)
 * As Science Consultant
 * (Season 6)
 * As Story Editor
 * As Science Consultant
 * (Season 6)
 * As Story Editor
 * As Science Consultant
 * (Season 6)
 * As Story Editor
 * As Science Consultant
 * (Season 6)
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor
 * As Story Editor