Roberto Orci, a writer and producer of hit films and television shows, died Tuesday at age 51.
Orci was a key figure behind some of the biggest blockbusters of the late 2000s, including the Transformers films and Star Trek reboots, and he also co-created the sci-fi thriller series Fringe with J.J. Abrams and Alex Kurtzman.
According to Variety, he died at his home in Los Angeles from kidney disease.
Orci was a collaborator going back decades with the writer and producer Kurtzman.
In the late 1990s, the two worked on the shows Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, and they continued to collaborate until the end of Orci’s career.
The duo began as screenwriters on films including Michael Bay’s The Island (2005) and the following year’s Mission: Impossible III, which was directed an co-written by their frequent colalborator J.J. Abrams.

Roberto Orci, a writer and producer of hit films and television shows, died at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday at age 51. His cause of death was kidney disease, according to Variety