Alan Taylor (director)


Alan Taylor is an American television and film director. He is known for his work on TV shows such as Lost, The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood, and Mad Men. He also directed films such as Palookaville, , and Terminator Genisys. In 2007 Taylor won the 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.

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 to study film under instructors including director Martin Scorsese.

Career

Taylor has directed for numerous programs on both network television and premium cable, most often on HBO. Besides his television work, Taylor has directed five feature films: Palookaville, The Emperor's New Clothes, Kill the Poor, ', and Terminator Genisys.
Taylor joined the crew of the HBO western drama Deadwood as a director for the first season in 2004. The series was created by David Milch and focused on a growing town in the American Old West. Taylor directed the episode "Here Was a Man". He returned as a director for the second season in 2005 and helmed the episode "Requiem for a Gleet". Taylor has directed the pilot episodes of Mad Men and Bored to Death as well as subsequent episodes of each. He has directed two episodes from season 1 of Game of Thrones and four episodes of season 2. Taylor directed ', the sequel to 2011's Thor. His latest directorial venture was the 2015 film Terminator Genisys. He worked on a television adaptation of the Strugatsky brothers’ 1971 science fiction novel Roadside Picnic for the WGN America network. Taylor returned to direct for the seventh season of Game of Thrones.

Personal life

Taylor currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has three children, with award-winning makeup artist Nicki Ledermann, named Ginger, Willa and Jamieson.

Directing filmography

Film
Short film
  • That Burning Question
Television
Below is the critical, public and commercial reception to films Taylor has directed, as of July 13, 2015.
FilmRotten TomatoesMetacriticCinemaScoreBudgetBox office
Palookaville64%
The Emperor's New Clothes73% 60
Kill the Poor25% 52
Thor: The Dark World66% 54 A-$170 million$644.8 million
Terminator Genisys27% 38 B+$155 million$435.9 million