Danny Strong is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. As an actor, Strong is best known for his roles as Jonathan Levinson in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doyle McMaster in Gilmore Girls and Danny Siegel in Mad Men. He also wrote the screenplays for Recount, the HBO adaptation Game Change, Lee Daniels' The Butler, and co-wrote the two-part finale of The Hunger Games film trilogy, Mockingjay – Part 1 and Mockingjay – Part 2. Strong also is a co-creator, executive producer, director, and writer for the Fox series Empire and created, wrote and directed the award-winning Hulu miniseries Dopesick.
Nick Adams was an American film and television actor and screenwriter. He was noted for his roles in several Hollywood films during the 1950s and 1960s including Rebel Without a Cause and Giant along with his starring role in the ABC television series The Rebel (1959–1961). He also led the cast of several Japanese productions, including Frankenstein Conquers the World, (Godzilla vs.) Monster Zero, and The Killing Bottle.
A showrunner is an established writer and the top-level executive producer of a television series production, who outranks other creative personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over the production, and the executive producer's role is limited to investing. The role of showrunner is not present on all television series, especially outside the US; this article describes the nature of the role where it is present.
Gregory Berlanti is an American screenwriter, producer and director of film and television. He is known for his work on the television series Dawson's Creek, Brothers & Sisters, Everwood, Political Animals, Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and You, in addition to his contributions to DC Comics on film and television productions, including The CW's Arrowverse, Titans, and the Doom Patrol. In 2000, Berlanti founded the production company Berlanti Productions.
Seth Aaron Rogen is a Canadian actor, comedian and filmmaker. Originally a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, he moved to Los Angeles for a part in Judd Apatow's series Freaks and Geeks in 1999, and got a part on Apatow's sitcom Undeclared in 2001, which also hired him as a writer. Rogen landed a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show (2004), for which the writing team was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. Apatow subsequently guided him toward a film career.
Judd Apatow is an American director, producer and screenwriter, best known for his work in comedy films. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he produced and directed the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), Funny People (2009), This Is 40 (2012), Trainwreck (2015), The King of Staten Island (2020), and The Bubble (2022).
Lowell Joseph Cauffiel is an American true crime author, novelist, screenwriter and film and television producer.
Anthony Harvey was an English filmmaker who began his career as a teenage actor, was a film editor in the 1950s and moved into directing in the mid-1960s. Harvey had fifteen film credits as an editor, and he directed thirteen films. The second film that Harvey directed, The Lion in Winter (1968), earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. Harvey's career is also notable for his recurring work with a number of leading actors and directors including Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Richard Attenborough, Liv Ullman, Sam Waterston, Nick Nolte, the Boulting Brothers, Anthony Asquith, Bryan Forbes and Stanley Kubrick. He died in November 2017 at the age of 87.
Mara Brock Akil is an American television producer, screenwriter and director. She became the youngest African American female showrunner and executive producer when she created the sitcom Girlfriends (2000–2008), airing on UPN and The CW, and the first African American female showrunner to have two series simultaneously on broadcast network television when she created its spin-off The Game (2006–15) on The CW before moving to BET.
All That is an American sketch comedy children's television series created by Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin. The series originally aired on Nickelodeon from April 16, 1994, to October 22, 2005, lasting ten seasons, and was produced by Tollin/Robbins Productions and by Schneider's Bakery in season ten. The pilot episode was originally shown as a special "sneak peek" on April 16, 1994, with the show officially debuting as a regular series on December 24 the same year.
Alan Michael Yang is an American screenwriter, producer and director. He was a writer and producer for the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, for which he received his first Emmy nomination. With Aziz Ansari, Yang co-created the Netflix series Master of None, which premiered in 2015 to critical acclaim. The series was awarded a Peabody Award, and at the 68th Emmy Awards in 2016, Yang and Ansari won for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Master of None and became the first writers of Asian descent to win in the category, which was also nominated in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. Yang also was the screenwriter of the 2014 comedy Date and Switch. In 2018, Yang co-created the Amazon Video series Forever.
Skydance Media, LLC is an American production company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by David Ellison in 2006, the company entered a five-year partnership to co-produce and co-finance films with Paramount Pictures starting in 2009, and renewed the agreement twice extending to 2021. The company specializes in films, animation, television, video games, and sports.
New Girl is an American television sitcom created by Elizabeth Meriwether and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for Fox that aired from September 20, 2011, to May 15, 2018. The series revolves around a quirky teacher, Jessica Day, after she moves into a Los Angeles loft with three men, Nick Miller, Schmidt, and Coach. Former roommate Winston Bishop and Jess's best friend Cece Parekh later join the characters. The show combines comedy and drama elements as the characters, who are in their late 20s and early 30s, deal with relationship issues and career choices. New Girl is a joint production between Elizabeth Meriwether Pictures and 20th Century Fox Television and is syndicated by 20th Television.
Jo-Issa Rae Diop, credited professionally as Issa Rae, is an American actress, writer, and producer. Founder of Hoorae Media, she achieved wider recognition as the co-creator, co-writer, and star of the HBO television series Insecure (2016–2021), for which she was nominated for multiple Golden Globes Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards.
Sam Esmail is an American film and television producer, director, and screenwriter who runs the production company Esmail Corp. He is best known as the creator, writer, and director of the award-winning USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), starring Rami Malek. He wrote and directed the feature films Comet (2014) and Leave the World Behind (2023). He produced and directed the first season of the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video psychological thriller Homecoming (2018–2020), starring Julia Roberts and Janelle Monáe, and produced USA's Briarpatch (2020), Starz's Gaslit (2022), and Peacock's Angelyne (2022) and The Resort (2022).
Black Lightning is an American superhero drama television series, developed by Salim Akil, that premiered on The CW on January 16, 2018, and concluded on May 24, 2021. It is based on the character of the same name, created by Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden, featured in publications of DC Comics. Cress Williams stars as the titular character alongside China Anne McClain, Nafessa Williams, Christine Adams, Marvin "Krondon" Jones III, Damon Gupton, James Remar, Jordan Calloway, and Chantal Thuy. The series sees the retired Black Lightning return to his life as a superhero and follows the effects of his vigilante activity on his professional and family life.
Salim Akil is an American film and television producer, director, and screenwriter from Oakland, California. He developed the television series Black Lightning based on a DC comics character of the same name. He is a co-founder of Akil Productions which he founded with his wife Mara Brock Akil.
Green Book is a 2018 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Farrelly. Starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, the film is inspired by the true story of a 1962 tour of the Deep South by African American pianist Don Shirley and Italian American bouncer and later actor Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga, who served as Shirley's driver and bodyguard. Written by Farrelly alongside Lip's son Nick Vallelonga and Brian Hayes Currie, the film is based on interviews with Lip and Shirley, as well as letters Lip wrote to his wife. It is named after The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide book for African American travelers founded by Victor Hugo Green in 1936 and published until 1966.
The first season of the American television series Black Lightning, which is based on the DC Comics character Jefferson Pierce / Black Lightning, premiered on The CW on January 16, 2018, and ran for 13 episodes until April 17, 2018. The season was produced by Berlanti Productions, Akil Productions, Warner Bros. Television, and DC Entertainment. It was ordered in May 2017 and production began that September, with Salim Akil serving as showrunner.
A League of Their Own is an American comedy drama television series co-created by Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson, who also stars. It is an adaptation of the 1992 film of the same name with new characters and storylines, about the formation of a World War II-era women's professional baseball team. Chanté Adams, D'Arcy Carden, Roberta Colindrez, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Kelly McCormack, Molly Ephraim, Melanie Field, and Priscilla Delgado also star. The series premiered with 8 episodes on August 12, 2022. The series was renewed in March 2023 for a four-episode final season, but in August 2023, Amazon announced that the second season would be scrapped due to delays caused by the WGA strike.
