Paris Barclay

A preeminent force in television entertainment, Paris Barclay has directed nearly 200 episodes of television and was active as a Director/Producer for series including: Station 19, Pitch, Sons of Anarchy, In Treatment, Cold Case, City of Angels and NYPD Blue. He also has directed episodes of a wide variety of series including Scandal, The Good Wife, Empire, House, NCIS: Los Angeles, CSI, Lost, The Shield, The West Wing and ER; as well as three films: the feature Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood; and the movies for television The Cherokee Kid and The Big Time. He earned two Emmy Awards and the DGA award for Outstanding Direction of a Drama Series for NYPD Blue, received nine additional Emmy nominations for both producing and directing, and garnered ten other DGA Award nominations for shows as diverse as Glee, In Treatment, The West Wing, House, and most recently Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. With that last nomination, he become one of only a handful of directors who have received Emmy nominations in every narrative category - drama, comedy and limited series.

A DGA member since 1992, Barclay was the first African-American and openly gay President in the Guild's history. In addition to his two terms as President of the Guild, his service includes numerous terms on the National Board, the Western Directors Council and chairmanship and participation in several committees, including co-chairing the Television Creative Rights Committee, the Return to Work Negotiations Committee, and the African-American Steering Committee. He was honored with the Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award in 2007, which is given for providing extraordinary service to the DGA, and in 2021 was given the Honorary Life Member Award, the Guild's highest honor for both service and career achievement. He currently serves as the Guild's Secretary/Treasurer.

A WGA member before he was a DGA member, Barclay co-created and wrote for the CBS series City of Angels with Nicholas Wootton and Steven Bochco, which ran for two years on the network. He co-wrote with James DeMonaco the Showtime pilot Hate, and has written other pilots for CBS and NBC. He wrote with Dustin Lance Black (on his first WGA-credited project) Pedro, a film about the life of AIDS activist Pedro Zamora for MTV, which received a Writers Guild nomination. As a playwright and composer, he has had musical dramas produced by Soho Rep, The Village Theatre, the Signature Theater, and the North Shore Music Theatre among others - including One Red Flower - adapted from soldiers letters written during the Vietnam War. Prior to his career in television and film, Barclay was a sought-after music video director. He created groundbreaking videos for Bob Dylan, the New Kids on the Block, Janet Jackson & Luther Vandross, Harry Connick, Jr. among others. His eight videos for LL Cool J, including the MTV, Billboard, and Grammy-winning "Mama Said Knock You Out," are still widely viewed and imitated today.

In 2021 & 2022, Paris reteamed with Ryan Murphy on the Netflix series MONSTER: THE JEFFREY DAHMER STORY (with Evan Peters and Niecy Nash); THE WATCHER, (with Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale, Margo Martindale and Mia Farrow); and the FX series AMERICAN HORROR STORY (with Russell Tovey, Joe Mantello, and Patti LuPone).

In 2024, Paris helmed two episodes of a new Ryan Murphy franchise for FX/HULU: AMERICAN SPORTS STORY: AARON HERNANDEZ, as well as two episodes of MONSTERS: THE ERIK AND LYLE MENENDEZ STORY with Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny. He spent the remainder of the year directing the pilot and executive producing the ABC Series, DOCTOR ODYSSEY, starring Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson. He also completed a feature documentary about the life of iconic keyboard and recording artist Billy Preston, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and DOC NYC.

The first half of 2025, Paris completed work on DOCTOR ODYSSEY, and shot two episodes of Season 3 of Shawn Ryan's hit Netflix series, THE NIGHT AGENT, starring Gabriel Basso.