PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Nov. 3, 2005 -- Michael Piller, best known to television viewers around the world as the executive producer/co-creator of more than 500 hours of Star Trek, lost his long battle with an aggressive form of head & neck cancer on Tuesday, November 1, 2005 at 4:51 a.m. at his home in Los Angeles. He was 57. He is survived by his wife Sandra, daughter Brent and son Shawn.

Piller co-created and executive produced Star Trek: Voyager (1994-1996), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1992-1995), and executive produced Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989-1994). During the 1994-95 television season, he also co-created and executive produced the UPN network series Legend.

With Piller at the helm of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the show became the first syndicated series in the 90’s to receive an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager continued the success of the franchise during their respective seven seasons on the air.

In 1998, Piller wrote and co-produced Star Trek: Insurrection, the ninth installment in the enormously successful Star Trek feature film franchise for Paramount Pictures.

In 1999, Michael partnered with his son Shawn Piller to form Piller² Inc., a Hollywood-based production company where they developed and produced new television and motion picture properties. The father/son duo are the co-creators of USA Network’s top-rated cable drama series The Dead Zone, and ABC Family’s Wildfire.

One of Piller’s greatest contributions to the industry was his willingness – indeed, a profound eagerness -- to encourage and recruit new writing talent. In addition to serving on the Advisory Board for the Department of Communications Studies at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he gave the school a major grant to help launch a nationally recognized screenwriting program.

Piller sought out new writers wherever he could find them -- not just in Hollywood, but at college campuses and writing seminars around the country. As a television producer, he was always a patron of the internship and mentor programs offered by the Writers Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Most importantly, he helped break down the barriers in Hollywood that made it difficult for young writers to get a foot in the door. As head writer of Star Trek: The Next Generation, he convinced Paramount to let him do what nobody else in Hollywood had ever done -- he opened the doors to freelance script submissions to anyone in the world, not just professional writers.

Over the years, Piller “discovered” and mentored dozens of young writers in Hollywood. Today, the names of many of those successful writers can be seen in the opening credits of hit television series covering a broad spectrum of programming on both network and cable television.

An Emmy Award-winning journalist, Michael began his broadcasting career with CBS News in New York. He subsequently served as managing editor of the WBTV-TV News in Charlotte, North Carolina, and assistant news director at WBBM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Chicago.

His first position in entertainment television was as a censor in the CBS docudrama unit. Piller then spent two years as a programming executive before leaving CBS to write full-time.

Michael's credits as a writer-producer include the series Simon & Simon, Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice, Probe, and Hard Time on Planet Earth. In addition, he co-created and executive produced the syndicated series Group One Medical.

Donations in Michael’s name can be made to The Michael Piller Distinguished Professorship at Carolina Writing for the Screen and Stage Program Arts and Sciences Foundation, c/o Emily Stevens, 134 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.