33 Facts About Paris Barclay

Paris K C Barclay was born on June 30,1956 and is an American television director, producer, and writer.

Paris Barclay serves as an executive producer on many of the shows he directs, and has served as a writer and co-creator as well.

From 2013 to 2017, Barclay served two terms as the President of the Directors Guild of America.

Paris Barclay went on to study English at Harvard University, where he was extremely active in student musical theatre productions and the a cappella singing group The Harvard Krokodiloes.

Paris Barclay attended both the La Lumiere School and Harvard with John Roberts, now the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Paris Barclay directed music videos for Bob Dylan, the New Kids On The Block, Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross.

Paris Barclay began his successful career in television with an unaired episode of Angel Street in 1992.

Paris Barclay was hired by John Wells, who was making his debut as an executive producer.

Paris Barclay directed the HBO movie, The Cherokee Kid, a Western dramedy starring Sinbad, James Coburn, Burt Reynolds, Gregory Hines, and A Martinez.

Paris Barclay reteamed with Smits again in his role as "Nero Padilla" on Sons of Anarchy.

In 2000, Paris Barclay joined forces with fellow NYPD Blue producers Steven Bochco and Nicholas Wootton to create City of Angels, a medical drama with a predominantly African-American cast including Blair Underwood, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Maya Rudolph, and Vivica Fox.

Paris Barclay served as co-executive producer and producing director of the series Cold Case, for which he has directed nine episodes.

Also in 2008, Paris Barclay collaborated with screenwriter Dustin Lance Black to write the MTV film Pedro, the story of Pedro Zamora from The Real World: San Francisco.

In 2011, Paris Barclay became the executive producer and primary director for the fourth season of FX's Sons of Anarchy, a role he continued through the seventh and final season.

Also in 2013, Paris Barclay directed two episodes of Glee, "Diva" and "Lights Out".

In 2014, Paris Barclay directed the season premiere and penultimate episodes of Sons of Anarchy for the fourth year running.

Paris Barclay directed four episodes of the series in total.

In 2017, Paris Barclay directed the pilot of and executive produced another Shondaland project, Station 19, which follows a group of Seattle firefighters in a spinoff of the highly successful Grey's Anatomy.

In early 2019, Paris Barclay reteamed up his Pedro co-writer Dustin Lance Black to produce and direct a star-studded Americans for the Equality ACt public awareness ad advertising campaign for the Human Rights Campaign.

In May 2021, Barclay directed a virtual reading of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, with Sterling K Brown, Laverne Cox, Jeremy Pope and Guillermo Diaz.

Paris Barclay spent the remainder of the year directing the pilot and executive producing the ABC series, Doctor Odyssey, starring Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson.

The first half of 2025, Paris Barclay 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.

In 2003, Paris Barclay wrote songs for and co-directed Order My Steps for the Cornerstone Theater Company.

Paris Barclay returned to Vietnam with One Red Flower: Letters from 'Nam, a reworked version of the musical was produced at the Village Theater in Issaquah to further acclaim, with Levi Kreis and David Burnham reprising their roles.

In 2008, Paris Barclay presented a reading of One Red Flower in Los Angeles to benefit New Directions, an organization that supports veterans of all wars.

In June 2013, Paris Barclay was elected President of the Directors Guild of America, the first African-American and first openly gay President in the history of the Guild.

Paris Barclay served on the Western Directors Council and co-chaired the Diversity Task Force, whose mission is to encourage the hiring of women and minority directors to networks and studios.

Paris Barclay completed his second term as DGA president in June 2017.

Paris Barclay was succeeded by Thomas Schlamme, whom he worked with on The West Wing and Manhattan, as well as on the DGA board.

Paris Barclay serves as the co-Chair of the DGA's Return to Work Committee, which created the protocols that brought the industry back to work after the COVID shutdown.

Josh Barry, another former Paris Barclay assistant, was the head of the television department at Prospect Park after working as an executive in Drama Development at ABC.

Paris Barclay was recently tapped to be the President of Shawn Levy's 21 Laps Television as part of a major deal with Netflix.

Paris Barclay married food-industry executive Christopher Paris Barclay, his partner of 10 years, in 2008.