Paris Barclay

Birthday: 30 June 1956, Chicago Heights, Illinois, USA

Two-time Emmy winner Paris Barclay, one of television's most successful and honored directors, is the President of the Directors Guild of America. Throughout his illustrious career in TV, Paris h ...Show More

Two-time Emmy winner Paris Barclay, one of television's most successful and honored directors, is the President of the Directors Guild of America. Throughout his illustrious career in TV, Paris has directed nearly 150 episodes of television, including NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, Lost, CSI, NCIS: Los Angeles, House, Glee, Smash, The Good Wife, and most recently the new series Extant and Manhattan. For the past four seasons, Paris has been an Executive Producer and the principal director of Sons of Anarchy. He helmed the highly rated season premieres of Sons for seasons 4, 5, 6, and 7 - with the recent 7th season premiere ranking as the highest rated episode in FX history. Paris is currently in production on the 7th and final season. Paris has won two Emmy Awards for his direction of NYPD Blue and has received six additional Emmy nominations for producing and directing, three of which are for directing Glee episodes "Wheels," "Diva," and "100." He has also garnered ten Directors Guild nominations, for shows as diverse as NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, House, Weeds, In Treatment and Glee. He became the first director in the history of the Guild to receive a comedy and drama nomination in the same year, two years in a row (2008 & 2009). He's also received three NAACP Image Awards, for producing, writing and directing City of Angels, directing Cold Case, and this past year for directing Smash. He has been nominated for the Image Award for Directing every year it has been offered, from 2006 to 2014. In 2014, he was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame. As a writer, Paris collaborated with the then-unknown Dustin Lance Black to create Pedro, the MTV telefilm telling the story of The Real World's Pedro Zamora. They received WGA and Humanitas Prize nominations for their work. Paris has also written the pilot Hate for Showtime (with James De Monaco) and individually wrote the pilot ID for CBS and Kelsey Grammer's Grammnet Productions. He has composed and written 16 musical plays, including One Red Flower (based on the book Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam) which has been performed all over the country. He's received honors such as four prestigious Peabody Awards, two Humanitas Prizes (as a producer and director), and countless other recognitions. Paris has directed three films: the feature Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood for Miramax, and television films The Cherokee Kid for HBO and The Big Time for TNT. Paris got his start in advertising working as a creative executive and then segued into directing music videos for some of music's biggest stars, such as: Janet Jackson, Bob Dylan, and LL Cool J. In addition to his service to the DGA, Paris has been recognized for his service and contributions to many charitable organizations, including Liberty Hill, GLAAD, the Pan African Film Festival, Project Angel Food and The Human Rights Campaign. He and Taylor Hackford shared the 2007 Robert Aldrich Award, given for extraordinary service to the Directors' Guild of America, and this year was named as one of Ebony Magazine's "Power 100." In June 2013, Paris was elected to be President of the Directors Guild of America, the first African-American and first openly gay President in the history of the Guild. Before his election as president, Barclay served four terms as the DGA's First Vice President, where he was also the first African-American officer in the history of the Guild. While serving as First Vice President, Paris was also chair of the DGA's Political Action Committee, whose mission it is to promote the interests of DGA members to state and federal lawmakers. Their top issues include battling online copyright threats and promoting production tax incentives. He also served on the Western Directors Council and co-chaired the Diversity Task Force, whose mission is to encourage the employment of women and minority directors to networks and studios. In addition, Paris served as a board member of the DGA-affiliated Franco-American Cultural Fund, which promotes cultural exchange between French and American directors. Mr. Barclay first joined the DGA in 1992 and was elected to the Western Directors Council and National Board of Directors in 1997. Hide