How to Get In: A Workshop with Director 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 seven 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, and House. He was nominated this year for the “Silenced” episode of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. He was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame in 2014, and was made an Honorary Life Member of the Directors Guild in 2021, after serving two terms as its president.

A DGA member since 1992, Barclay was the first African-American and openly gay President in the Guild’s history. 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.

In 2022, Paris had six episodes he directed premiere in collaboration with Ryan Murphy: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, The Watcher, and American Horror Story: NYC. He is currently in postproduction on a feature documentary he co-wrote and directed about the famed musician Billy Preston, with interviews from Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Olivia Harrison, Sandra Crouch, and Merry Clayton, among others.

Along with his industry honors, Paris has been recognized for his creative, humanitarian, and political work by the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, Project Angel Food, the Pan African Film Festival, and the Aviva Family and Children Services organization. The proud parent of two adopted boys with his husband Christopher, his motto is: “What is the point of success if you don’t give back?”