David Gerrold (born January 24 1944 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American science fiction screenwriter and novelist known for his scripts for the popular original Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", for creating the Sleestak race on the TV series Land of the Lost, and for his novelette The Martian Child, which won both Hugo and Nebula awards, and was adapted into a 2007 film starring John Cusack.