American screenwriter and producer who guided Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as showrunner and executive producer through its later seasons.
Ira Steven Behr is an American television writer and producer, born in 1953, whose name is most closely tied to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. After writing for a run of 1980s dramas, he joined Star Trek: The Next Generation as a producer during its third season before leaving for other work.
Behr returned to the franchise when Deep Space Nine launched in 1993 and stayed for its entire seven-season run, rising to showrunner and executive producer. Under his leadership the series embraced long serialized arcs, most notably the Dominion War, and developed a large recurring ensemble. He co-wrote many episodes, including the season four opener The Way of the Warrior with Robert Hewitt Wolfe and the series finale What You Leave Behind with Hans Beimler. He is also credited with shaping the comic Ferengi culture, and wrote a book collecting the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.
After Deep Space Nine, Behr served as showrunner on Crash, executive producer on Alphas and writer and co-executive producer on Outlander. He later co-directed What We Left Behind, a documentary looking back at Deep Space Nine.