Orci created the television series Matador for the El Rey Network, but after this was initially renewed, it was cancelled at the end of the first season.

He met his longtime friend and collaborator Alex Kurtzman when both were 17-year-old students at Crossroads, a private school in Santa Monica, California.

These included one called Misfortune Cookies which Orci described as "loosely autobiographical",[8] and Last Kiss, which Kurtzman said was their version of The Breakfast Club but was set in a lunatic asylum.

[8] Orci and Kurtzman began their writing collaboration on the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,[9] after being hired by Sam Raimi.

[8] After actor Kevin Sorbo suffered a stroke, the duo were required to come up with inventive ideas to minimize his appearances on screen.

[9] Following their work on that film, the duo were brought in to revise the script for Zack Snyder's Watchmen,[15] in an uncredited capacity.

[17] When they collaborated once more with Bay for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, they were under significant time pressures due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike.

Kurtzman and Orci had two weeks to outline the film, and after the strike Bay had them moved into the Hotel Casa del Mar.

[18] In the period between 2005 and 2011, the films written by Kurtzman and Orci grossed more than $3 billion, leading to Forbes describing them as "Hollywood's secret weapons".

He said in an interview with the magazine Extra that he had previously been involved in productions where the producers had writing backgrounds and had looked to them for help, and he was happy to provide that same support to the writers on Eagle Eye.

[23] Orci and Kurtzman also worked together as executive producers on the animated television series, Transformers: Prime, due to their involvement with the live action movies.

[26] Orci felt that the relationship between the James T. Kirk and the younger Spock was reflective of the partnership of himself and Kurtzman, he said that "We didn't even realize we were writing about ourselves until we were halfway through the script, that was a little embarrassing.

[20] Star Trek was profitable at the domestic box-office, resulting in a sequel being greenlit by the studio and Kurtzman and Orci being asked to write it.

[30][31] In April 2014, Orci and Kurtzman confirmed to Variety that they are no longer going to work together on film projects but will still collaborate on television.

[11][32] Kurtzman wanted to work on the Spider-Man film franchise, while Orci was linked to the directorial role for Star Trek 3.

This would have marked Orci's directorial debut, and he was to write the script alongside co-writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay.

[42][43] Orci was replaced as director by Justin Lin, who had previously directed films in The Fast and the Furious franchise.

[42] Orci created Matador with the idea that the main character would be a "soccer player by day who is a spy by night", and called him a "Latin James Bond".

Orci, however, stated that Taylor was physically and financially abusive to him, having tased him, attacked him with a baseball bat, and attempted to strangle him, all in incidents reported to the police.