(written from a Production point of view)
Douglas "Doug" Aarniokoski (born 25 August 1965; age 58) is a director, producer, and writer who directed the Star Trek: Discovery episodes "Lethe", "The Sound of Thunder", "Through the Valley of Shadows", and "Scavengers", the Star Trek: Short Treks episode "The Brightest Star", and the Star Trek: Picard episode "Nepenthe". He also served as co-executive producer on the first season of Short Treks and on Star Trek: Picard.
He started his career in 1988 as a second assistant director on two episodes of Pee-wee's Playhouse. Over the years he worked as second assistant director, first assistant director and second unit director on many movies and television projects. His first full directing credit was the 2000 movie Highlander: Endgame. In the 2010s he moved into directing television, including episodes of Criminal Minds, Sleepy Hollow, Arrow, The Flash, Limitless, Bull, American Gothic, and Instinct.
He also worked as a producer on the television series Sleepy Hollow, Limitless, Bull, and Instinct as well as the movies Machete Kills and The Day.
Aarniokoski wrote the screenplays for the 1990s video productions Puppet Master 4 and Puppet Master 5 and the 2013 movie Nurse 3-D, which he also directed; it featured Patrick Kwok-Choon. In addition, he worked as production assistant on Turner & Hooch (1989) and Kuffs (1992, starring Christian Slater) and as assistant to Tom Cruise for the 1990 Days of Thunder.
He had small acting appearances in his directorial debut Highlander: Endgame, in The Faculty (1998, featuring Famke Janssen and Bebe Neuwirth), and in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997, with Charles Napier).