Directors Guild of America President Paris Barclay today announced the appointment of Michael Stevens as the chair of the 66th Annual DGA Awards Dinner taking place at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles on Saturday, January 25, 2014. This is Stevens’ second year as Awards Dinner Chair.
Stevens is an Emmy Award-winning producer, writer and director of more than 30 prime-time event and concert specials. In addition to his work on live events, concerts and awards shows, Stevens has produced and directed several critically acclaimed dramatic films, a Grammy® nominated album and, most recently, his documentary on famed political cartoonist Herblock.
“We’re pleased to welcome Michael once again as chair of the DGA Awards Dinner,” said Barclay. “Last year’s DGA Awards show was an outstanding event that showcased and honored the best directorial work of the year, and we look forward to working with Michael in the months ahead to produce another entertaining and innovative evening.”
For a decade, Stevens has been producing and writing for the Kennedy Center Honors. During his tenure, the show has been awarded five consecutive Emmy Awards, most recently in 2013. In 2009, he wrote and produced “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.”
Stevens also directed, wrote and produced the Emmy® Award-winning Directors Guild of America 75th Anniversary “Game-Changer” short films that debuted in 2011. That same year he was nominated for a DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Miniseries for Thurgood.
The DGA has been a part of Stevens’ family for over six decades; Michael Stevens is the grandson of three-term Guild president George Stevens and the son of director member George Stevens, Jr. Michael Stevens’ role as chair brings full circle a family legacy at the DGA Awards that began in 1948 when his grandfather was one of the first Guild service Award recipients at the inaugural DGA dinner.
“I welcome Paris’ call to serve the Guild as chair of the Awards Dinner, as the Guild has not only been integral to the history of my family but fundamental for more than seven decades in creating and maintaining a just, fair and productive working environment for all visual storytellers,” stated Stevens. “Without the Directors Guild, all of us in this community would face far greater challenges in pursuing the work that sustains us every day.”
Michael Stevens is an award winning producer-director-writer of over 30 primetime event television specials, and director-producer of three independent feature films. His 20-year career also stretches into the world of Broadway and recorded music.
Stevens was born into an entertainment family. His paternal grandfather, George Stevens, was a legendary film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. His father, George Stevens Jr., is an award-winning film and television writer, director, producer, and founder of the American Film Institute. Other family members include actors Alice Howell and Yvonne Howell, and the theatre critic, Ashton Stevens. Stevens represents the fifth generation of his family to work in either theatrical or filmed entertainment.
Since 2002, Stevens has been a writer and producer of the annual Kennedy Center Honors. His productions of the TV special of the Honors event have secured the show an Emmy® nomination for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special in six consecutive years – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 – winning the award five consecutive times.
Stevens’ concern for human rights and upbringing in a show biz family where humanitarianism was always prevalent were his motivation in part for producing and directing the television adaptation of the Broadway play, “Thurgood,” about the life of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, which was nominated for three Emmy Awards®, a SAG Award, two N
