The protagonist is afflicted with prosopagnosia, more commonly referred to as "face blindness," a cognitive disorder of face perception, the ability to recognize familiar faces is compromised, including one's own face (self-recognition). Other aspects of visual processing and intellectual functioning are unaffected.
This series, and its main character, is inspired by the life and work of Dr. Oliver Wolf Sacks (1933-2015), a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer, and his books "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales" (1985) and "An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales" (1995). His previous 1973 book was adapted into the Academy Award-nominated "Risvegli (1990)", starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. Like Zachary Quinto's character, Sacks was gay, though he only addressed his sexual orientation openly very late in his life, in his second autobiography "On the Move: A Life" (2015).
British neurologist and writer Dr. Oliver Wolf Sacks (1933-2015), upon whom this series was inspired, suffered from severe shyness, which he believed stemmed from his prosopagnosia, popularly known as "face blindness". Alan Alda, Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, and Brad Pitt were also diagnosed with prosopagnosia.
The series was in development at Fox Broadcasting Company in November 2019. However, Fox did not go forward with the project and the show's development was moved to NBC, with the name changed from "Dr. Wolf" to "Brilliant Minds" and a 13-episode, season 1 order.
Zachary Quinto and Donna Murphy worked together in 1992 during a production of Oliver! In Pittsburgh before playing mother and son in this show.