Derek Connolly (born c. 1976) is an American screenwriter and film producer. He is best known for his collaborations with filmmaker Colin Trevorrow, writing films including Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), Jurassic World (2015), and its sequels ' (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022). He also co-wrote ' (2017), Detective Pikachu (2019), and the unproduced original draft of ', which became ' (2019).
Connolly attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School in Miami and New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Connolly rewrote ' (2017), for Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures. Connolly co-wrote early (and ultimately uncredited) drafts of ' with Guillermo del Toro, Jon Spaihts and Zak Penn; the final screenplay was by Steven S. DeKnight, Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder and T. S. Nowlin; based on characters by Travis Beacham and del Toro Connolly and his writing partner Colin Trevorrow co-wrote the screenplays for Jurassic World (2015) and its sequel ' (2018), and by February 2018, had written a story treatment for Jurassic World Dominion, was released on June 10, 2022. Connolly and Trevorrow also co-wrote the first draft of ', the final film of Star Wars sequel trilogy, but both left after Trevorrow stepped down as director, they were later replaced by J. J. Abrams (who directed ', eventually replaced Trevorrow as director) and Chris Terrio; however Connolly and Trevorrow received a story credit with Abrams and Terrio on ' (2019).
Connolly was reported to be working on a remake of the film Flight of the Navigator, as well as writing an original Pixar film directed by Teddy Newton and a live action Legend of Zelda film directed by Wes Ball and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad. Connolly has been tapped to pen the script for a Metal Gear film.