American showrunners

American comedian (1949–2016)

American actor and comedian

Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress and writer. She rose to international fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series earned her Primetime Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Satellite, American Comedy and TV Guide awards. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time and is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, spawning her successful film career.

American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright

Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, comedian, and singer. He is the creator and star of the television series Family Guy and The Orville, and co-creator of the television series American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. He also co-wrote, co-produced, directed, and starred in the films Ted, its sequel Ted 2, and A Million Ways to Die in the West.

American comedian, writer and actor (born 1947)

American actor and filmmaker (1934–2016)

American cartoonist (born 1954)

American actress

American filmmaker (1966-)

American filmmaker (born 1970)

American comedian and actor

American television screenwriter and producer (1921–1991)

American actor and filmmaker (born 1966)

American director, screenwriter, and producer (born 1964)

American film directors, screenwriters, and producers

American comedian, actor, and filmmaker (born 1967)

American actor, animator and filmmaker (born 1969)

American filmmaker (born 1961)

Lena Dunham is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series Girls (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy Award nominations and two Golden Globe Awards. Dunham also directed several episodes of Girls and became the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series. She started her career writing, directing, and starring in her semi-autobiographical independent film Tiny Furniture (2010), for which she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She has since written and directed the 2022 films Sharp Stick and Catherine Called Birdy. In 2025, she created the Netflix series Too Much starring Megan Stalter.

American actor, animator and filmmaker (born 1971)

American television producer, television and film writer, and author

James Francis Gunn Jr. is an American filmmaker. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with Tromeo and Juliet (1996). He then began working as a director, starting with the horror-comedy film Slither (2006), and moving to the superhero genre with Super (2010), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), The Suicide Squad (2021), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).

American director, writer, and producer (born 1940)

American film director, screenwriter and producer

American actress, writer, and comedian

George Vincent Gilligan Jr. is an American screenwriter and filmmaker. He became widely known as the creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the AMC crime series Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and its spin-off prequel series Better Call Saul (2015–2022). He has received numerous accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards, six Writers Guild of America Awards, two Critics' Choice Television Awards, two Producers Guild of America Awards, a Directors Guild of America Award, and a BAFTA Television Award.

British-American screenwriter (born 1976)

Ryan Patrick Murphy is an American writer, director, and producer, working mainly in television. He has often been described as "the most powerful man" in modern television and signed the largest development deal in television history with Netflix. Murphy is noted for having created a shift in inclusive storytelling that "brought marginalised characters to the masses." His accolades include six Primetime Emmy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, a Tony Award, four Producers Guild of America Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, including the honorary Carol Burnett Award.

American writer and producer (born 1970)

American actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter

American TV producer and actor (born 1966)

American animator

American filmmaker, novelist, and comic book writer

American screenwriter and author (born 1978)

American television and film producer (born 1956)

American writer and producer

American television producer

American film writer, director and producer

American screenwriter, television director, television producer

American television director, screenwriter, producer, composer and actor

American screenwriter

American television producer (1955–2015)

American actor, film director, producer and writer (born 1964)

American screenwriter and producer (born 1973)

American screenwriter, director, and producer (born 1965)

American actor and producer

American comedian and actor

American screenwriter producer (1973—2025)

American television writer and producer (1943–2018)

American screenwriter, director and producer

American television producer, writer

American screenwriter and director

American screenwriter and television producer (1964-)

American film director (born 1974)

American comic book writer

American author, journalist, and television writer and producer

American actor and comedian

Canadian and American television producer, writer, and actor (born 1944)

Sheridan Taylor Gibler Jr., known professionally as Taylor Sheridan, is an American writer, producer, director, and actor. He is best known as the co-creator of the television series Yellowstone and creator of its prequels 1883 (2021) and 1923 (2022).