Paris Barclay | Executive Producer, Director | Sons of Anarchy on FX
Paris Barclay
Executive Producer / Director
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, Barclay has directed over 135 episodes of television, including NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, Lost, CSI, NCIS: Los Angeles, House, Glee, Smash, The Good Wife, and the new series Extant and Manhattan. He won two Emmy Awards for his direction of NYPD Blue and has received five additional Emmy nominations for producing and directing, most recently in 2013 for Glee.
He has also garnered ten Directors Guild nominations. He’s also received three NAACP Image Awards, for producing, writing and directing. He has been nominated for the Image Award for Directing every year it has been offered. Barclay 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 four Peabody Awards, two Humanitas Prizes and countless other recognitions. For the past three seasons, Barclay 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, and 6. Paris is currently in production on the 7th and final season.
He 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.
Barclay got his start in advertising working as a creative executive and then segued into directing music videos for Janet Jackson, Bob Dylan, and LL Cool J. Barclay has been recognized for his service and contributions to charitable organizations Liberty Hill, GLAAD, the Pan African Film Festival, Project Angel Food and The Human Rights Campaign.
In June 2013, he 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. In addition, Barclay served as a board member of the DGA-affiliated Franco-American Cultural Fund, which promotes cultural exchange between French and American directors. Barclay first joined the DGA in 1992 and was elected to the Western Directors Council and National Board in 1997. He has said: “What’s the point of any success if you don’t give back?”