DGA Elects Paris Barclay President

TV director Paris Barclay has been elected president of the Directors Guild of America, the DGA announced Saturday.

Barclay was chosen at the Guild’s National Biennial Convention held at DGA National Headquarters in Los Angeles. He was unopposed. In addition, 147 delegates representing more than 15,000 DGA members elected new officers and members of the National Board of Directors.

“It’s a great time for the DGA,” Barclay tells The Hollywood Reporter. “This is very humbling.”

Barclay is the first African-American to serve as president of the DGA and is also the guild’s first openly gay president. He has been a member of the Guild since 1992 and has received 10 DGA Award nominations for outstanding direction in comedy and drama television. He won a DGA Award in 1998 for the NYPD Blue episode “Heart and Souls,” which featured the death of Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits). He also won two Emmys for his direction on NYPD Blue. Barclay’s other credits include Sons of Anarchy, Glee, Smash, House, Cold Case and NCIS: Los Angeles.

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“I am profoundly honored to be elected president of the DGA,” Barclay said after his election. “The DGA has worked for more than three-quarters of a century to advance the creative and economic rights of directors and their teams, and I look forward to continuing this strong tradition of service. As the son of a glass blower and a tile maker from Chicago, I am extremely humbled to have the honor to serve in the footsteps of the legendary leaders of the DGA like Frank Capra, Robert Wise and Gil Cates.”

Prior to his election as president, Barclay’s service to the DGA included four terms on the National Board as first vice-president, beginning in 2005, and as third vice-president from 1999 to 2005.

“There are few members who have served the Guild as thoroughly and in as many capacities as Paris Barclay — and all while maintaining an impressive career as one of the most active television directors in the business” said outgoing president Taylor Hackford. “I’m thrilled to see him take his place as the next DGA president, and I know he’ll do a terrific job navigating the DGA through whatever terrain may lie ahead.”

Barclay, a father of two sons, is a graduate of Harvard college and is married to Christopher Barclay.

The DGA’s main theatrical and television contracts expire in mid-2014, as do those of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. The DGA tends to negotiate its contracts early, which means that bargaining for the renewal agreements is likely to take place this fall. Barclay said that the DGA would rely, as it has in the past, on outside research in formulating its positions.

“We have to look at what’s fair compensation,” he said. “We really are business people who look at it as a business.”

He added that it was too early to say what the key negotiating issues would be.

Other officers chosen to serve alongside Barclay were:  Vincent Misiano, elected national vice president, and Michael Apted, a past-DGA president, was re-elected secretary-treasurer.
 
Also elected were first vice-president Betty Thomas; second vice-president Gary Donatelli; third vice-president Thomas Schlamme; fourth vice-president Jace Alexander; fifth vice-president Jon Favreau; sixth vice-president John LiBretto; and assistant secretary-treasurer Scott Berger.

Find the complete list of 2013-2015 DGA officers and National Board members below:

President
Paris Barclay
 
National Vice-President
Vincent Misiano
 
Secretary-Treasurer
Michael Apted
 
Assistant Secretary-Treasurer
Scott Berger
 
First Vice-President
Betty Thomas
 
Second Vice-President
Gary Donatelli
 
Third Vice-President
Thomas Schlamme
 
Fourth Vice-President
Jace Alexander
 
Fifth Vice-President
Jon Favreau
 
Sixth Vice-President
John LiBretto
 
Board Members
Lesli Linka Glatter
Taylor Hackford
Brooke Kennedy
Cleve Landsberg
Mimi Leder
Don Mischer
Donald Petrie
Scott L. Rindenow
Liz Ryan
Steven Spielberg
Mary Rae Thewlis
 
Alternate Board Members
Jon Avnet
Laura Belsey
Karen Gaviola
Todd Holland
Randal Kleiser
Michael Mann
Jonathan Mostow
Matthew Penn
Rosemary Rodriguez
Millicent Shelton
Jesus Trevino
Michael Zinberg
 
Associate Board Members
Alan Curtiss
Duncan Henderson
Dennis W. Mazzocco
Kathleen McGill
Barbara Roche
 
Second Alternates
Lee Blaine
Timothy G. Engle
Julie Gelfand
Louis J. Guerra
Jennie O’Keefe
Bill Miller

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