David E. Waters

David E. "Muddy" Waters of Greensboro, North Carolina, is the Co-Key Second Assistant Director on 's, directed and produced by J.J. Abrams. Waters previously worked with Abrams and many other members of the Star Trek crew as 2nd Second Assistant Director and Second Assistant Director of Additional Photography on the 2006 Paramount Pictures release Mission: Impossible III.

Prior to becoming an assistant director, Waters was a production assistant on several major studio films. His production assistant credits include Species II (featuring James Cromwell), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (featuring Bill Cobbs and Jeffrey Combs), Anywhere But Here (featuring John Carroll Lynch, Stephanie Niznik and Faran Tahir), The Insider (starring Bruce McGill and Christopher Plummer), and Hollow Man (featuring Jimmie F. Skaggs).

Star Trek is the third film starring Chris Pine that Waters has worked on as an assistant director, after 2004's Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and 2006's Just My Luck. Waters' other assistant director film credits include Miss Congeniality (starring William Shatner), Cradle 2 the Grave (featuring Gabrielle Union), Keeping Up with the Steins, Georgia Rule, the 2007 remake of Halloween (starring Brad Dourif, Clint Howard, and Malcolm McDowell), and Blonde Ambition (featuring Andy Dick). Star Trek 2nd Unit Unit Production Manager Thomy Harper was an assistant director on all of these films, as well.

Waters also assisted in the direction of films such as About Schmidt (featuring Len Cariou and Matt Winston), Hidalgo (featuring Frank Collison, Jerry Hardin, Jeff Kober, Malcolm McDowell, and Peter Mensah), Ice Princess (starring Kim Cattrall), and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (starring Corbin Bernsen). For television, Waters was hired on a daily basis as 2nd Second Assistant Director of the Fox series 24 and was 2nd Second Assistant Director for the pilot episode of Without a Trace, the CBS series starring Enrique Murciano.

Waters married actress Erica Frene on 20 April 2008.