Alan Taylor
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.
Also recorded as Alan Jamieson Taylor
Alan Taylor
Alan_Taylor_2013.jpg: Benjamin Ellis derivative work: TriiipleThreat · This file was derived from: Alan Taylor 2013.jpg · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Alan Taylor
- Born
- January 13, 1959
- Birthplace
- Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
- Education
- University of Toronto, Columbia University, New York University
- Occupation
- Television director, film director, screenwriter, television producer
- Full name
- Alan Jamieson Taylor.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Fields
- film screenwriting and film direction.
- Honours
- Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and Long Form.
- Languages
- English.
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Alan Taylor. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
museum · 12076372952 · wikidata · Q1113146
In this article
Biography
Biography
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.
Alan Taylor studied at New York University. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is film screenwriting and film direction. Residence is recorded at Pennsylvania and New York City. Distinctions recorded are Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Alan Taylor • Born — January 13, 1959 • Birthplace — Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. • Children — Willa Taylor, Ginger Taylor, Jem Taylor • Education — University of Toronto, Columbia University, New York University • Occupation — Television director, film director, screenwriter, television producer • Years Active — 1990–present
Early life
Early life
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.
Career
Career
Taylor has directed for numerous programs on both network television and premium cable, most often on HBO. Taylor's early work on television include 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 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 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. He notably directed the fictional Battle of Rook's Rest in "The Red Dragon and the Gold.
Personal life
Personal life
Taylor currently lives in Tyler Hill, Pennsylvania. He has three children with award-winning makeup artist Nicki Ledermann.
Directing filmography
Directing filmography
Film • Year — Title — Director — Writer — Notes • 1990 — That Burning Question — Short film • 1995 — Palookaville • 2001 — The Emperor's New Clothes • 2003 — Kill the Poor • 2013 — Thor: The Dark World • 2015 — Terminator Genisys • 2021 — The Many Saints of Newark Television • That Burning Question (1988) TV special • Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) TV series • episode 1.07 "A Dog and Pony Show" • episode 4.03 "Autofocus" • episode 4.20 "The Wedding" • episode 5.08 "The True Test" • episode 6.01 "Blood Ties, Part 1" • episode 6.16 "Mercy" • episode 7.22 "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" • Oz (1997) TV series • episode 1.06 "To Your Health" • episode 2.06 "Strange Bedfellows" • Trinity (1998) TV series • episode 1.08 "Breaking In, Breaking Out, Breaking Up, Breaking Down" • Sex and the City (1998) TV series • episode 2.09 "Old Dogs, New Dicks" • episode 2.14 "The Fuck Buddy" • episode 4.15 "Change of a Dress" • episode 4.16 "Ring a Ding-Ding" • episode 6.07 "The Post-it Always Sticks Twice" • episode 6.08 "The Catch" • Now and Again (1999) TV series • episode 1.03 "Over Easy" • The Sopranos (1999) TV series • episode 1.06 "Pax Soprana" • episode 4.10 "The Strong, Silent Type" • episode 5.02 "Rat Pack" • episode 6.04 "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh" • episode 6.09 "The Ride" • episode 6.12 "Kaisha" • episode 6.14 "Stage 5" • episode 6.18 "Kennedy and Heidi" • episode 6.20 "The Blue Comet" • The West Wing (1999) TV series • episode 1.08 "Enemies" • episode 1.16 "20 Hours in L.A." • Six Feet Under (2001) TV series • episode 2.08 "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" • Keen Eddie (2003) • episode 1.11 "Sticky Fingers" • Carnivàle (2003) TV series • episode 2.07 "Damascus, NE" • Deadwood (2004) TV series • episode 1.04 "Here Was a Man" • episode 2.04 "Requiem for a Gleet" • Lost (2004) TV series • episode 2.04 "Everybody Hates Hugo" • Rome (2005) TV series • episode 1.10 "Triumph" • episode 1.12 "Kalends of February" • Big Love (2006) TV series • episode 1.05 "Affair" • Mad Men (2007) TV series • episode 1.01 "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" • episode 1.02 "Ladies Room" • episode 1.12 "Nixon vs. Kennedy" • episode 2.12 "The Mountain King" • Law & Order (1990) TV series • episode 18.05 "Driven" • In Treatment (2008) TV series • episode 2.19 "Walter – Week 4" • Nurse Jackie (2009) TV series • episode 2.03 "Candyland" • episode 2.04 "Apple Bong" • Rubicon (2010) TV series • episode 1.09 "No Honesty in Men" • Boardwalk Empire (2010) TV series • episode 1.05 "Nights in Ballygran" • Game of Thrones (2011) TV series • episode 1.09 "Baelor" • episode 1.10 "Fire and Blood" • episode 2.01 "The North Remembers" • episode 2.02 "The Night Lands" • episode 2.08 "The Prince of Winterfell" • episode 2.10 "Valar Morghulis" • episode 7.06 "Beyond the Wall" • The Playboy Club (2011) TV series) • episode 1.01 "Pilot" • Electric Dreams (2017) TV series • episode 1.09 "Safe and Sound" • Interview with the Vampire (2022) TV series • episode 1.01 "In Throes of Increasing Wonder..." • episode 1.02 "...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self" • The Crowded Room (2023) TV Miniseries • episode 07 "The Crowded Room" • Blue Eye Samurai (2023) TV series • episode 1.07 "Nothing Broken" • House of the Dragon (2024) TV series • episode 2.01 "A Son for a Son" • episode 2.04 "The Red Dragon and the Gold"
Identity
Identity
Alan Taylor is recorded as having received Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1965
Alan Taylor born at San Francisco.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Pennsylvania and New York City.
Residences
San Francisco.
Birth place
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Alan Taylor (director), revision 1372647226 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa-educated director took Emmy for Sopranos' famed snuff-out episode. Canada.com. September 20, 2007.
- 2.Estrada, Louie. James Taylor Dies; Put Theater on Video. The Washington Post. C11. February 13, 2005.
- 3.Hibberd, James. Director Alan Taylor's Tortuous Journey to the 'Sopranos' Movie: "The Hardest Job I've Ever Done". The Hollywood Reporter. August 12, 2021.
- 4.Goldberg, Lesley (September 12, 2011). "'Game of Thrones': Neil Marshall Among Season 2 Directors". The Hollywood Reporter
- 5.Hibberd, James. Game of Thrones season 7 directors revealed. Entertainment Weekly. June 29, 2016.
- 6.Schwartz, Terri. Terminator Genisys Alan Taylor returning to TV with Roadside Picnic adaptation at WGN America. Zap2It. September 11, 2015.
- 7.Kroll, Justin. 'Thrones' and 'Thor: The Dark World' Helmer Eyed to Direct Next 'Terminator'. Variety. September 5, 2013.
- 8.Kroll, Justin. Terminator: Genisys. Bloody Disgusting. September 5, 2013.
- 9.HBO. "Pax Soprana" on The Sopranos episode guide.
- 10.HBO. "The Strong, Silent Type" on The Sopranos episode guide.
- 11.HBO. "Rat Pack" on The Sopranos episode guide.
- 12.HBO. "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh" on The Sopranos episode guide.
- 13.HBO. "The Ride" on The Sopranos episode guide.
- 14.HBO. "Kaisha" on The Sopranos episode guide.
- 15.HBO. "Stage 5" on The Sopranos episode guide.
- 16.HBO. "Kennedy and Heidi" on The Sopranos episode guide.
- 17.HBO. "Blue Comet" on The Sopranos episode guide.
- 18.HBO. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" on Six Feet Under episode guide.
- 19.Sarnoff, Elizabeth. Here Was a Man. 4.
- 20.Mann, Ted. Requiem for a Gleet. 4.
- 21.HBO. "Affair" on Big Love episode guide.
- 22.AMC. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" on Mad Men episode guide.
- 23.AMC. "Ladies Room" on Mad Men episode guide.
- 24.AMC. "Nixon vs. Kennedy" on Mad Men episode guide.
- 25.AMC. "The Mountain King" on Mad Men episode guide.
- 26.HBO. Boardwalk Empire episode "Nights in Ballygran" synopsis.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q1113146: Alan TaylorWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Alan Taylor was recorded at birth as Alan Jamieson Taylor. The authorities additionally record the heading Alan Jamieson Taylor. His recorded language was English. He was the child of James J. Taylor and Mimi Cazort. Taylor received Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form.
Identity and origins
Recognition and collections
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
38,713 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Alan SteelPerson
- Alan TamPerson
- Alan TangPerson
- Alan TannerPerson
- Alan TilvernPerson
- Alan TudykPerson
- Alan van SprangPerson
- Alan VintPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Alan Taylor?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.