D.C. Fontana

Dorothy Catherine "D.C." Fontana was born in 1939 in Sussex, New Jersey.  

From a young age, Fontana displayed a keen interest in writing, beginning to compose horror stories featuring herself and her friends as characters at the age of 11.  

Fontana's professional writing career began when she secured a position as a secretary for the renowned American science fiction author Samuel A. Peebles. Although initially hired solely for her secretarial skills, Fontana demonstrated her own creative abilities by selling Peebles her first original story while working for him.

Fontana's most significant contributions came in the realm of television writing, particularly through her involvement with the original "Star Trek" franchise. She was engaged in the developmental stages of the series and went on to write numerous episodes, establishing a reputation for crafting nuanced, believable female characters - a relative rarity among the mostly male-dominated television writing landscape of the era. Beyond "Star Trek," Fontana lent her talents to a variety of other television genres, cementing her status as a versatile and accomplished writer.