Naren Shankar is an Indian American writer, producer and director of several television series. He is currently co-showrunner of the Amazon Prime sci-fi space opera series The Expanse. He served as co-showrunner on the long-running CBS crime drama CSI and Almost Human, among others. As a writer and producer, Shankar has contributed with works for Farscape, ', Night Visions, The Outer Limits, The Chronicle, ', seaQuest 2032, Grimm and .
Education
Naren received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D degrees in applied physics and electrical engineering from Cornell University. After graduating, he joined the team behind '. As a producer, Shankar has worked with ' and Farscape. He also contributed to Doom.
Naren joined the writing staff of ' as an intern during the latter half of the fourth season. He then wrote several episodes for The Next Generation and for ', as well as one first season episode for ', and worked as science consultant during that show's sixth season and as story editor during the seventh season. Shankar also contributed to the video games ' and Star Trek Generations.
Success
After his time with the Star Trek franchise, Shankar became an associate producer on SeaQuest 2032 during its final season and wrote two episodes for the series. He then became a writer and executive story consultant for The Outer Limits, working with Harlan Ellison, among others, sharing with him a 2000 Writers Guild of Canada Award for the episode “The Human Operators,” based on a story by Ellison and A. E. van Vogt. After stints as a writer and executive producer of the Sci-Fi Channel's Farscape and NBC's short-lived ', Shankar became a consulting producer and head writer on the hit CBS series '. Shankar then joined the production team of the fantasy television series Grimm as writer and executive producer. He was one of the writers of the Two and a Half Men-episode "Fish in a Drawer" in 2008. In 2013, Shankar was named co-executive producer and showrunner for the futuristic television series Almost Human alongside creator J. H. Wyman, before leaving the series. The show was produced by J.J. Abrams and starred Karl Urban, but was canceled after one season. He is currently serving as executive producer for The Expanse, an American space opera / mystery science fiction drama television series which premiered on Syfy channel in the United States on December 2015. He has also written two episodes for the first season of the series. He is also serving in the same role for For All Mankind, an American TV series based on the premise that the Space Race didn't end with the conquest of the Moon, because the Soviets arrived there first.
Awards and nominations
He has earned a number of award nominations for his work, including two, 2003 and 2004 Emmy Award for CSI, a 2005 PGA Award and a 2006 Writers Guild of America 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" for which he also wrote the story. This episode features Trek alumni Wallace Langham, Liz Vassey, Tracy Middendorf, and Tom Virtue.
