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Do IT this week: Layering
Canton native Brannon Braga will be teaching screenwriting at Stark campus beginning Feb. 4
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Jan 27, 2008
Canton native Brannon Braga may have had one of the most glamorous jobs in Hollywood before the writers strike — writing scripts for the TV show 24.
Starting Feb. 4, he will be offering an insider's look at what that's like when he teaches a course on screenwriting at the Kent State Stark campus in Jackson Township.
The KSU alumnus called KSU-Stark with the idea that he do something to help area students. The perfect idea seemed to be teaching a course on what he knows best, KSU spokeswoman Cynthia Williams said.
Braga said he kind of stumbled into his early success writing scripts for the many franchises of Star Trek.
''I didn't really have any books or any way of grasping how I could go about being a screenwriter when I was growing up,'' the 42-year-old Braga said. ''It's not easy, but it can be done. That's part of the message I want to impart.''
He moved to Canton with his family when he was 13, graduated from Canton McKinley High School and took some courses at KSU-Stark. Then he was off to the University of California-Santa Cruz for a degree in theater arts and film production.
In 1990, that morphed into an internship writing scripts for Star Trek: The Next Generation at Paramount. The next year, he was hired full time.
Over the next 14 years, he
was credited with more than 108 Star Trek episodes. In 1994, he received a Hugo Award for Excellence in Science Fiction Writing. He became a co-producer and producer for various Star Trek franchises.
Along the way, he took heat for Star Trek's falling ratings and eventual cancellation.
''It isn't a pleasant thing to think of yourself as to blame,'' he told Fandom in 2005. ''There are other factors involved with Star Trek losing its audience appeal over the years.''
After Star Trek, he switched gears to become executive producer of the short-lived science fiction drama Threshold on CBS.
Now he is a writer for 24, the award-winning TV drama series starring Kiefer Sutherland. Braga and about seven other writers collaborate on each episode.
''It's challenging and demands a tremendous amount of continuity'' from episode to episode, he said.
While Braga received a Distinguished Alumnus award from Kent State in 2003 and is widely known by Star Trek fans, it hasn't made much difference at home, he told the Beacon Journal in 2001.
''I don't think anybody really knows what I do,'' he said. ''I think they know the actors more than the writers and producers. It's not like I go back to Canton at Christmas time and people come up to me.''
His class will meet from 2 to 5 p.m. Feb. 4, 6, 8 and 11. Tuition is $255; non-KSU students also pay an admission fee of $30. Registration deadline is Friday.
Current KSU students may register online via FlashLine in the Student Tools channel. Others must visit the student services office at KSU-Stark to apply for admission.
For details, call 330-499-9600 or 330-535-3377.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
Canton native Brannon Braga may have had one of the most glamorous jobs in Hollywood before the writers strike — writing scripts for the TV show 24.
Get the full article here.
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