Tim Minear (born October 29, 1963) is an American screenwriter and director. He was born in New York, grew up in Whittier, California, and studied film at California State University, Long Beach.

Minear was an assistant director on the film Platoon, and wrote episodes for several television series including The X-Files and Lois and Clark. He later wrote, executive-produced, and directed episodes of Strange World, Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, and The Inside (which he also created, with Howard Gordon).

Minear had another series, Drive, airing on FOX in April 2007, however it was cancelled by the network after only four episodes . Drive was set to return with two additional episodes on July 4th, 2007, but these were rescheduled to July 13th and then cancelled. This continued his tradition of short-lived work on FOX.

Minear often works with Joss Whedon, and his work is typically characterised by a sharp, black humour and an ability to portray characters who are sympathetic and understandable, but morally ambiguous. An example of this is Angel Season Two, where Minear wrote all of the key episodes in the 'beige Angel' arc.

In 2004 Tim Minear stated that he was hired to write a screenplay of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. In 2006 Minear had finished the script, which was being shopped around to various directors.

In 2007 Minear received a pilot commitment from ABC for Miracle Man, a drama series for which the company engaged in a bidding war with Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is being produced by 20th Century Fox Television, with which Minear is signed in an overall deal.

Mr. Minear came to "The X Files" in 1998 after serving successfully as executive story editor on "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." His episode credits on "Lois and Clark" include "Brutal Youth," "Twas the Night Before Mxymas," "Meet John Doe" and "I've Got You Under My Skin". Prior to that he spent two seasons living in New Zealand where he worked on the syndie hour-drama "High Tide." He received both writing and co-producing credits during his tenure. Other credits include story editor for Aaron Spelling's "Robin's Hoods," writer for New World's "The New Adventures of Zorro" and co-writer (with Reider of the political thriller "The Infiltrator". Mr. Minear studied film at Cal State University, Long Beach.

Tim joined ABC's "Lois & Clark" at the beginning of the 1996-97 television season. His first script for the series, "Brutal Youth," found Lois and Clark pondering issues of mortality, married life and love while tracking a mad-scientist who had invented a criminal way to restore youth to the aged. Tim next penned the script for "Lois & Clark's" 1996 Christmas episode, "'Twas the Night Before Mxymas," in which a selfish elf from the fifth dimension attempted to rid Metropolis of hope -- and therefore Superman -- but, of course, did not succeed. When he was a child, Tim Minear's parents chastised him for doing his homework while watching television. Little did they know he was planning a career. A Trekie long before there was a "Next Generation," Tim grew up in Whittier, California and began making super 8 movies in his backyard at the age of nine. He studied film at Cal State University at Long Beach and began his professional career in film as a production assistant then assistant director on such films as "Re-Animator," "The Men's Club," "Dudes" and "Platoon." After penning several "spec" feature scripts, Tim worked for a time as a "script doctor," re-writing on low budget feature films. His television credits include "The New Adventures Of Zorro," "Robin's Hoods" for Aaron Spelling and "Two" for Stephen Cannell. He spent two years as co-producer on "High Tide," a surfer/detective/comedy/drama/any-excuse-to-show-lots-of-girls-in-bikin is hour syndicated show. While working on "High Tide," Tim got to live for a year in New Zealand.