Gregory Jein

Gregory Jein was a twice Academy Award-nominated Chinese-American visual effects specialist and miniature model maker. A lifelong fan of the Star Trek franchise, Jein collaborated on the un-realised original series sequel Star Trek: Phase II, designing an alternative Klingon D7-class battlecruiser. He received his first Oscar nomination as chief model maker for Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), notably for creating the model of the alien mothership (now permanently exhibited at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum Collection). Jein worked for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Walt Disney Imagineering before setting up his own company in July 1979, his workshop located in Marina Del Rey, California. He was involved as a key model maker on five Star Trek films, as well as on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) for which he built studio models (based on designs by Rick Sternbach and Andrew Probert) for the Enterprise D, the Klingon Vor'cha and Negh'Var class warships and the Ferengi D'Kora-class Marauder. Gregory Jein, Inc went on to construct and supply the majority of models and props during the whole run of TNG. Jein was nominated for a Prime Time Emmy Award for his work on the Trials and Tribble-ations (1996) for which he constructed re-imagined models of the original Enterprise and Deep Space Station K-7. Outside of Star Trek, Jein also created models for mega box-office blockbusters like Fantastic Four (2005), Avatar (2009), Oblivion (2013) and Interstellar (2014). Lauded by Spielberg as "the greatest miniature guy in the world", Jein died from a heart attack on May 22 2022 at the age of 76.