American director and producer of cult films and television series, Alan Taylor, was born in 1965. He spent his childhood in Ottawa, Canada, and graduated from the Lisgar Collegiate Institute.
After having studied at film school, he began his professional training, debuting as a director with the short film “That burning question“(1990), which he also wrote. In 1995 he made his feature film directorial debut, with the bittersweet comedy”Palookaville“Award-winning film for best first feature at the Venice Film Festival. It is a story, inspired by three stories by Italo Calvino, about three young unemployed Americans, thugs and cowards, who clumsily venture into two rounds, but then are rewarded for a good deed.
After directing several episodes of the series “Homicide“(1996-1999), which follows the work of a fictitious Homicide Unit of the Baltimore Police Department, Taylor he participated in some of the most interesting American television productions of the late nineties. Starting with two episodes of the series “The West Wing of the White House“(1999-2000), to later direct six episodes of the television phenomenon”Sex in New York“(1999-2003), which ironically narrates the emotional and sexual lives of four professionals established in modern and exclusive New York City.
Taylor he also put his signature on another cult series such as “The Sopranos“(20006-2007), which describes the life of an Italian-American mafia family. Directing the nine episodes of the series created by David Chase earned him a 2007 Emmy Award for Best Directing in a Drama Series of TV.
After directing an episode of the legal suspense series “Law & Order“(2008), Taylor was devoted to another smash hit, “{@movie: Mad Men (2007-2008), a series set in a 1960s New York ad agency, of which he also directed the pilot episode,”Smoke Gets in Your Eyes“and for which he received a Best Director nomination at the 2008 Emmy Awards.
From 2011 to 2012 he was hired by the director of the fantasy series “game of Thrones“, television adaptation of the series of novels”Song of ice and fire“by George RR Martin, which tells of the struggle between different families to conquer the throne of an imaginary world.
Parallel to his television career, Taylor He also devoted himself to his first love, the cinema. In 2001 he directed the comedy “My napoleon“; in 2003, it was the turn of”Kill the Poor“, drama set in Alphabet City, an area of Manhattan center of drug trafficking in the eighties.
In his personal life, Taylor is married to makeup artist Nicki Ledermann; they both have three children.