Bryan Fuller (born July 27, 1969) is an American screenwriter and producer known for being involved with TV shows that (almost) never find mainstream success, yet have dedicated cult followings. Starting his TV writing career on the Star Trek franchise and on the TV remake of Carrie, Fuller soon began to come into his own following the Turn of the Millennium, when he began creating and co-creating his own works.
Famous for creating dark-yet-humorous cult shows, his notable, independent early works include Dead Like Me (2003-04), Wonderfalls (2004), and Pushing Daisies (2007-2009). He also was an executive producer on the first, fourth and fifth volumes (because Seasons aren't comic book-y enough) of Heroes, and wrote fan-favorite episode "Company Man".
During Fall 2012, he attempted a reboot of The Munsters for NBC, dubbed Mockingbird Lane, which did not make it past the pilot stage. His latest series was the crime series Hannibal (2013-2015), based on the character of Hannibal Lecter that aired on NBC; Hannibal is an especially notable entry as, not only did season one mark the first time he got to end a first season on his own terms, but it's his first show not to be Screwed by the Network before reaching season three (instead dying before season four).
His most recent work is a television adaptation of the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods with Michael Green. He also wrote and produced for Star Trek: Discovery, but left before it started airing.
Known for his wildly original, sophisticated and usually macabre work; lamentably, his series tend to not last too long. note Fuller seems to be fond of giving female leads Tomboyish Names. All of his series (yes, even the Darker and Edgier Playing Against Type Hannibal) share a universe.
Tropes associated with Fuller and his shows:
- Action Girl: Female protagonists are frequent, and badass female characters even moreso.
- Anyone Can Die: Appears in a few shows, most notably Hannibal, where Plot Armor is dubious even for characters in the later books.
- Author Appeal: All works contain at least some flavor of either magic, death or murder. And sometimes food.
- Black Comedy: Chock-full of this.
- British Brevity: His shows, save Dead Like Me, have seasons that don't exceed 13 episodes.
- Wonderfalls only had one season of 13 episodes.
- Pushing Daisies has two seasons with the amount of episodes adding up to an average TV season of 22 episodes.
- Hannibal was specifically contracted to air 13-episode seasons, an unusual move for a broadcast network.
- American Gods has three seasons with a total of 26 episodes.
- Darker and Edgier: Hannibal. His previous shows could be described as dark, but whimsically so. Hannibal is his darkest, bloodiest show yet.
- Fantastic Comedy: Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies.
- Gender-Blender Name: His works usually feature at least one woman with a traditionally male name, including George, Jaye, Chuck and Freddie springing to mind. Even Star Trek: Discovery has Michael despite his leaving during pre-production.
- Lightmare Fuel: Everything up to Hannibal could be considered this, seeing how he could make scenes of possible mental decline, elaborate murders and bloodthirsty grandfathers funny.
- Magic Realism: All of his shows have elements of this, even Hannibal, which goes for a Surreal Horror approach, and taken up to eleven with American Gods.
- Production Posse: Though some are reduced to The Cameo, quite a few actors can be seen passing between works. The Other Wiki even has a chart showing overlap.
- Purple Prose: His dialogue tends to be very flowery and eloquent.
- Refuge in Audacity: His shows are notable for having very out there concepts and executions.
- Screwed by the Network:
- And how. Despite making shows with strong fandoms and great responses, several of his shows have been subject to cancellation. Put it this way: when Hannibal was the first of his shows to receive a third season, a large part of the fan-response was disbelief. Of course now even Hannibal has been cancelled...
- Fuller has also departed several of his shows due to Executive Meddling, specifically, Dead Like Me, Star Trek: Discovery, and American Gods (2017).
- Trolling Creator: Via twitter. Hell, when fan rumors started flying about the apparent death of Dr. Chilton from Hannibal, he proceeded to post ambiguous tweets and diagrams of how they could have survived.
- The 'Verse: All his shows take place in "The Fullerverse", usually through cameos, props, (The Lion from Wonderfalls on Niki's nightstand in Heroes) and throwaway lines of dialogue. (such as Ned mentioning working at the Happy Time Temp Agency when he's undercover.) Another example is Gretchen Speck-Horowitz from Wonderfalls showing up in Hannibal and almost getting murdered by the Mushroom Killer.
