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Michael Burnham is the fictional protagonist on Star Trek: Discovery portrayed by American actress Sonequa Martin-Green. She originally appears as the First Officer of USS Shenzhou under Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) until she commits mutiny, for which she is stripped of rank and sent to prison for life. Burnham is later recruited by Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) on as a science specialist after serving only six months of her sentence, with Lorca viewing Burnham as an asset in the war against the Klingon. She serves as the series lead. The character is introduced as a xeno-anthropologist helping the Earth-based Starfleet understand and engage with new cultures in outer space.

In December 2016, it was announced that Martin-Green would serve as the series lead of Star Trek: Discovery, with the character initially named "Rainsford". In previous iterations of Star Trek, Spock had never mentioned a sister. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman has explained that the specifics of Burnham's backstory would be revealed in a way that would not break the existing canon continuity. Unlike previous Star Trek leads, Burnham was not made a starship captain, "to see a character from a different perspective on the starship—one who has different dynamic relationships with a captain, with subordinates, it gave us richer context".

The character was originally to be referred to only by the name Number One, to honor the character of that name portrayed by Majel Barrett in the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage." With changes in the pre-production storyline, the character is found guilty of mutiny and no longer a First Officer by the end of the pilot episode. Thus, the Michael Burnham name was revealed during the first episode, quickly making "Number One" her informal name, the same as First Officer William Riker's informal name on the series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Series creator Bryan Fuller deliberately gave Martin-Green's character a traditionally male name, which he had done with the female leads (George, Jaye and Chuck) in three of his previous series. Martin-Green decided that the character was named after her father. Executive producer Aaron Harberts spoke to TV Guide and explained the reason for calling the character a traditionally male name, explaining, "We've worked on many shows with Bryan and it's a motif. It's his signature move to name his lead women with names that would typically be associated as male." He felt the name was "cool and different" and pitched it himself explaining, "[I was] thinking of female columnist Michael Sneed, who writes for the Chicago Sun-Times, and The Bangles' bassist Michael Steele." He added, "And, of course, an archangel is named Michael as well, and it just had a lot of potency for us." Sonequa Martin-Green expressed enthusiasm about the name, liking the symbolism and anticipating a more gender-fluid and equal opportunity future. Of the name, she said, "I appreciated the statement it makes all on its own to have this woman with this male name, just speaking of the amelioration of how we see men and women in the future."

Michael Burnham has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.