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Alan Taylor

Alan Taylor

Directing

Biography

Alan Taylor (born January 13, 1959) is an American television director, film director, screenwriter, and television producer. He is best known for his work on television series such as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Mad Men, and Game of Thrones. He also directed films such as Palookaville, Thor: The Dark World, Terminator Genisys, and The Many Saints of Newark. In 2007, Taylor won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for The Sopranos episode "Kennedy and Heidi." In 2008 and 2018, he was also nominated in the same category for the Mad Men episode "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and the Game of Thrones episode "Beyond the Wall," respectively. Taylor's father, James J. Taylor, was a private in the U.S. Army translating for Voice of America, stationed in Yokohama, who subsequently held numerous jobs before becoming a videographer in Washington, D.C. Taylor's mother, Mimi Cazort, was curator emerita for the National Gallery of Canada. His sister is the indie rock musician Anna Domino. He spent part of his life in Manor Park, Ottawa, Canada, and attended Manor Park Public School and Lisgar Collegiate Institute high school. As part of the Communications Club at Lisgar, he acted in its production of The Mouse That Roared. He went on to major in history at the University of Toronto and then at New York City's Columbia University before transferring to New York University in his late 20s to study film under instructors including director Martin Scorsese. Taylor has directed for numerous programs on both network television and premium cable, most often on HBO. Taylor's early work on television includes work on The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and The West Wing. Taylor joined the crew of the HBO western drama Deadwood as a director for the first season in 2004. Taylor directed the pilot episodes of Mad Men ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes") and Bored to Death, as well as subsequent episodes of each. He joined the HBO series Game of Thrones, directing seven episodes, including the critically acclaimed season 1 episode "Baelor." He worked on a television adaptation of the Strugatsky brothers' 1971 science fiction novel Roadside Picnic for the WGN America network. Besides his television work, Taylor's early films include Palookaville, The Emperor's New Clothes, and Kill the Poor. In the 2010s, Taylor began working on large-budget blockbuster films. He was hired to direct Thor: The Dark World (2013), a superhero film and sequel to 2011's Thor. He was approached by Marvel producer Kevin Feige following director Patty Jenkins's exit from the project and hoped he would inject a darker tone into the project after seeing Taylor's work on Game of Thrones. Taylor's next film was Terminator Genisys, a film that Taylor hoped to fix following his reading of the script, citing his love of the first two Terminator films. After directing nine episodes for the HBO series The Sopranos, Taylor was approached by show creator David Chase to return to direct the 2021 prequel film The Many Saints of Newark. In August 2022, it was announced that Taylor was hired to direct multiple episodes of the second season of House of the Dragon. Description above from the Wikipedia article Alan Taylor, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Law & Order
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990
Game of Thrones
8.5

Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Friction between the houses leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the farthest north. Amidst the war, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night's Watch, is all that stands between the realms of men and icy horrors beyond.

Game of Thrones

2011
The Sopranos
8.7

The story of New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads. Those difficulties are often highlighted through his ongoing professional relationship with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. The show features Tony's family members and Mafia associates in prominent roles and story arcs, most notably his wife Carmela and his cousin and protégé Christopher Moltisanti.

The Sopranos

1999
Lost
8.0

Stripped of everything, the survivors of a horrific plane crash must work together to stay alive. But the island holds many secrets.

Lost

2004
The West Wing
8.3

The West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation's capital as it tells the stories of the members of a fictional presidential administration. These interesting characters have humor and dedication that touches the heart while the politics that they discuss touch on everyday life.

The West Wing

1999
House of the Dragon
8.3

The Targaryen dynasty is at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins when King Viserys breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm.

House of the Dragon

2022
Mad Men
8.1

Set in 1960-1970 New York, this sexy, stylized and provocative drama follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising.

Mad Men

2007
Sex and the City
7.4

Based on the bestselling book by Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City tells the story of four best friends, all single and in their late thirties, as they pursue their careers and talk about their sex lives, all while trying to survive the New York social scene. 

Sex and the City

1998
Boardwalk Empire
8.0

Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition is a place where the rules don't apply. And the man who runs things -- legally and otherwise -- is the town's treasurer, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, who is equal parts politician and gangster.

Boardwalk Empire

2010
Six Feet Under
8.1

When death is your business, what is your life? For the Fisher family, the world outside of their family-owned funeral home continues to be at least as challenging as—and far less predictable than—the one inside.

Six Feet Under

2001
Oz
8.1

The daily lives of prisoners in Emerald City, an experimental unit of the Oswald Maximum Security Prison where ingroups - Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans - stick close to their mutual friends and terrorize their mutual enemies.

Oz

1997
In Treatment
7.6

The intimate confines of psychotherapy sessions are seen from the perspective of a therapist and individual patients.

In Treatment

2008
Homicide: Life on the Street
8.1

An American police procedural chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit.

Homicide: Life on the Street

1993
Deadwood
8.1

The story of the early days of Deadwood, South Dakota; woven around actual historic events with most of the main characters based on real people. Deadwood starts as a gold mining camp and gradually turns from a lawless wild-west community into an organized wild-west civilized town. The story focuses on the real-life characters Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen.

Deadwood

2004
Big Love
6.9

The story of Bill Henrickson and his life in suburban Salt Lake City, balancing the needs of his three wives -- Barb, Nicki and Margene-- their seven kids, three new houses and the opening of his newest hardware store. When disturbing news arrives about Bill's father, he is forced to reconnect with his polygamist parents who live on a fundamentalist compound in rural Utah.

Big Love

2006
Rome
8.2

A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.

Rome

2005
Nurse Jackie
7.1

Every day is a matter of life and death in a hectic New York City hospital, but for Nurse Jackie that's the easiest part. Between chronic back pain that won't quit, and a personal life on the constant edge of collapse, it's going to take a white lie here, a bent rule there, and a handful of secret strategies to relieve the pain, and stay one step ahead of total disaster.

Nurse Jackie

2009
Interview with the Vampire
7.5

A century-old vampire from New Orleans reunites with an ailing journalist to recount his life of bloodlust and his tumultuous relationship with the rakish Frenchman who turned him.

Interview with the Vampire

2022
Terminator Genisys
6.0

The year is 2029. John Connor, leader of the resistance continues the war against the machines. At the Los Angeles offensive, John's fears of the unknown future begin to emerge when TECOM spies reveal a new plot by SkyNet that will attack him from both fronts; past and future, and will ultimately change warfare forever.

Terminator Genisys

2015
Thor: The Dark World
6.5

Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos… but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

Thor: The Dark World

2013