Paul Lee is a British director, producer and executive. He is currently the CEO of the television and movie studio wiip. He founded the BBC’s U.S. cable network BBC America and ran ABC Family, ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios for The Walt Disney Company. During his tenure, Lee is credited with championing racial diversity and changing the face of American television with hit shows including Black-ish, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, American Crime, The Goldbergs, Quantico and Fresh Off the Boat. Early Life Paul Lee was born in London to South African Jewish parents Emanoel Lee and Janine Lee and educated at The Dragon School, Oxford, Winchester College and New College, Oxford. Career Lee was a director for the BBC Music and Arts department where he made for Bookmark, and & for the BBC strand Arena. Woody Guthrie helped Arena win the British Academy Television Awards for best series in 1989. Lee was the writer and director of for Arena. It was the first foreign scripted film to be made in the Soviet Union before the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It was filmed entirely on location in Moscow and the sleepy town of Kostroma on the banks of the Volga. In 1998, Lee was the Founder and CEO of the U.S. digital cable network BBC America. He is credited with helping introduce U.S. audiences, U.K. formats such as renovation programming Changing Rooms, reality soaps The Hotel and mockumentaries like The Office. The Office won the Golden Globe Awards for Best Television series: Musical or Comedy. It was the first British comedy in 25 years to be nominated for a Golden Globe and the first ever to win. In 2004, Lee was recruited by The Walt Disney Company and named , ABC Family where he helped define and name a new generation of teenage viewers called Millennials. Programs like The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Pretty Little Liars helped ABC Family succeed with the coveted 18-34 demographic, knocking MTV out of the top spot. In 2010, Lee took the helm of the ABC Entertainment Group where he oversaw ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios. Under Lee, ABC became known as a leader for storytelling in the areas of female empowerment and diversity. Lee championed: Scandal -2012 which, led by Kerry Washington was the first U.S. broadcast drama since Get Christie Love! to feature an African-American female lead; How to Get Away with Murder which starred Viola Davis made history when she became the first-ever African-American woman to win an Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series; Quantico -2015 which, led by Priyanka Chopra, marked the first time a South-Asian female actress headlined a network television series; American anthology crime drama American Crime -2015, created by Academy Awards winner John Ridley presaged the Black Lives Matter movement. During its run, the series received 16 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, honoring Regina King with two consecutive wins for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. The series also received 5 Golden Globe nominations, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Writers Guild of America Awards nominations, in addition to winning three NAACP Image Awards. His TGIT: Thank God It's Thursday block on Thursday night anchored by Shonda Rhimes’ Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder and his Wednesday night comedy block anchored by Modern Family and Black-ish helped elevate ABC to 1st position in entertainment programming. Additionally, Lee cultivated diverse comedy voices that had not been heard on U.S. broadcast television led by Kenya Barris' Black-ish and Nahnatchka Khan'sFresh Off The Boat.
In 2016, Lee departed The Walt Disney Company and founded the TV and Movie studio wiip backed by Creative Artists Agency. wiip has made Dummy -2020 for new streaming platform Quibi and , winner of the 2020 , for Apple TV+. Personal Life He is married to Deirdre Lee and has two sons. Shows 1987 Bookmark: Primo Levi - Director 1988 Exiles: Josef Skvorecky: Czechoslovakian Novelist - Director 1988 Arena: Woody Guthrie - Director 1989 Arena: Oblomov - Director; Writer 1994 Arena: Kalashnikov - Director 1994 Arena Relics: The Curse of the Firebeetle - Director 2001 The Office - Executive 2003 State of Play - Executive 2006 Kyle XY - Executive 2008 The Secret Life of the American Teenager - Executive 2010 Pretty Little Liars - Executive 2011 Revenge - Executive 2011 Pan Am - Executive 2011 Once Upon a Time - Executive 2012 Scandal - Executive 2013 The Goldbergs - Executive 2014 How to Get Away with Murder - Executive 2014 Black-ish - Executive 2015 Fresh Off the Boat - Executive 2015 American Crime - Executive 2019 Dickinson - Executive Producer 2020 Dummy - Executive Producer
