Category: SHOWRUNNER
Fair game
American Princess showrunner Jamie Denbo tells DQ how her own life inspired the Lifetime drama, which follows a woman who finds support among an eclectic cast of characters at a Renaissance fair after running away from her wedding.
Changing for the Bitter
Showrunners Burak Sağyaşar and Timur Savcı tell DQ how they aimed to break the Turkish drama mould with their series Bitter Lands for ATV, and talk about the challenges that come with the rapid growth of a local scripted industry.
Fear factor
Jami O’Brien has moved from Fear The Walking Dead and Hell On Wheels to AMC’s supernatural frightener NOS4A2. But as she tells DQ, she never intended to become ‘that horror writer.’
Music to die for
Canadian police procedural The Murders puts music front and centre as a detective tries to make amends for the mistake that led to a colleague’s death. DQ speaks to showrunner Damon Vignale.
Family focus
Love, life, laughter and loss come under the microscope in family adventure drama Northern Rescue, a coproduction from Canada’s CBC and Netflix. Executive producer David Cormican tells DQ how the show meets audience demand for hopeful programming.
Scaling new Heights
Warren Clarke, showrunner of Australian ensemble drama The Heights, discusses the making of this series set in a housing tower and the challenges of launching a serial drama.
Rite of Passage
Liz Heldens, showrunner of US drama The Passage, discusses the two-year journey to bring the Fox series to screen, adapting one of her favourite books and finding the balance between character and a furious blend of science fiction, thriller and the supernatural.
Speaking for the dead
Morwyn Brebner, showrunner of CBC series Coroner, tells DQ about making the Canadian drama – from adapting Matthew Hall’s series of novels and casting Serinda Swan in the lead role to the collaborative nature of making television.
Money maker
Bedrag (Follow the Money) III is the next chapter of the acclaimed TV series from Denmark’s DR, set in the world of organised crime and money laundering. Creator and showrunner Jeppe Gjervig Gram (Borgen) explains how this new season attempted to stay ahead of the headlines.
Blast off
First-time showrunner Mika Watkins tells DQ about building Origin, a 10-part space thriller commissioned by YouTube Premium that mixes sci-fi and horror to tell the story of a group of people dreaming of redemption but left fighting for survival.
Loss leader
Kit Steinkellner’s widow-focused drama Sorry for Your Loss has given Facebook’s Watch platform its first real episodic hit. Here, the showrunner discusses making a ‘traumedy’ for an audience of two billion.
Meet The Romanoffs
Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s latest project has arrived on Amazon Prime Video, but The Romanoffs swims against the tide of contemporary television drama, as DQ discovers
The royal treatment
Showrunners Emma Frost and Matthew Graham explore the early life of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife, in historical drama The Spanish Princess. They reveal how the future queen caused a stir in Tudor England and the drama’s parallels with Breaking Bad.
The Lynč effect
What started as a teaching exercise became a landmark coproduction between Czech Television and Arte in the shape of drama series Lynč (The Lynching). DQ speaks to showrunner Harold Apter about creating the Czech show and bringing the US creative process to Europe.
Horrible histories
Eric Khoo, showrunner and director of HBO Asia’s Folklore, reveals how he drew on the region’s myths and legends to create the ambitious horror anthology series.
Courting drama
Ahead of the finale of the fourth season of US drama Hit the Floor, showrunner James LaRosa discusses the show’s move from VH1 to BET, why sports are perfect for TV dramas and his unconventional journey to running a series.
The monster within
As Mr Mercedes returns for a second season, showrunner Jack Bender tells DQ about adapting Stephen King’s crime novel for the small screen and the importance of character in TV drama.
The UnReal deal
As reality TV-focused drama UnReal ends after four seasons, showrunner Stacy Rukeyser reflects on the show’s controversial storylines and the rise of female anti-heroes.
Shades of grey
As season two of HBO’s Westworld draws to a close, co-creators and showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan discuss making the series, rebooting the Western genre and their fascination with the mind-bending themes at the heart of the drama.
Double act
Castle exec producers Terri Edda Miller and Andrew W Marlowe return to TV with Take Two, a crime drama that sees an actor pair up with a PI. The duo tell DQ about the international route they took to bring the series to air and why procedural dramas still have a place on screen.