In this debut episode of the State of the Arts Podcast, host filmmaker and writer Des Doyle chats with Ciarán Donnelly, BAFTA and multiple IFTA award-winning Director/Producer, and co-creator of Kin. Produced in partnership with Film Ireland and supported by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland through the Screen Stakeholders Funding Scheme, the series explores the creative processes, industry challenges, and new opportunities that both Irish & international creatives face in ever-evolving artistic landscapes.
In this discussion, Donnelly shares his experience and insight, having directed and produced some of the world’s most successful television series, including global hits such as Amazon’s The Wheel of Time, Netflix’s Vikings: Valhalla, and MGM/History’s Vikings.
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Ciarán Donnelly
Ciarán is a BAFTA and multiple IFTA award-winning filmmaker who has directed and produced some of the world’s biggest TV shows, including global phenomena such as Amazon’s The Wheel of Time, Netflix’s Vikings: Valhalla and MGM/History’s Vikings.
He co-created and exec produced the acclaimed Irish crime drama series Kin (starring Daredevil’s Charlie Cox) for AMC+, which also became a breakout hit on RTÉ, BBC and Netflix, and has created the new series Sarah Says, which he is co-producing with the UK’s Vertigo Films.
He has been at the forefront of groundbreaking television for nearly twenty years. Other notable credits include directing multiple episodes of The Tudors, EP/Director on Disney’s Harley and the Davidsons, NBC’s Crossbones starring John Malkovich, along with ABC’s Once Upon a Time and 3 Arts’ Titanic: Blood and Steel starring Neve Campbell.
He is currently directing the new Netflix original series Grown Ups – based on the Marian Keyes novel – which is now filming in Dublin, as well as writing and developing new film and TV projects under his own banner, T4 Productions.
Des Doyle
Des is a D.I.T. graduate who spent fifteen years working in the Camera Department in the Irish film industry before moving into directing. He is the writer/director of the critically acclaimed feature documentary Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show, featuring JJ Abrams (Alias, Lost, Fringe), Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife), Ronald D. Moore (Outlander, Battlestar Galactica) and Bill Prady (The Big Bang Theory) amongst others.
He has created a number of courses in conjunction with Screen Ireland over the last few years, which provide breakdowns of all the major US and international streaming networks and what their evolving programming needs may be.
He also initiated the Pitching Programme for TV Drama and Comedy with Screen Ireland, giving a selected group of writers the opportunity to pitch directly to some of the major Irish production companies based on briefs they provide, and created the LA Writers Room Placements scheme, which allowed Irish writers to travel to LA and spend time in real-world US TV series writers’ rooms.
He has also lectured on Showrunning, US TV Production and the Future of Content at USC Los Angeles, Rowan University Philadelphia, Scriptmakers Berlin, APIT TV Producers Conference Lisbon, Northern Ireland Screen, IADT Dublin, Writers Guild of Ireland and as part of the recent Greenlight Screenwriting Labs in Galway.
He is currently developing a new documentary series, which is a US/Irish co-production, as well as providing creative consultancy services to Irish producers, writers and directors with projects targeting the US or global streaming markets.
He is also the co-founder of Destination TV along with Ciarán Donnelly, a creative skills live events company that recently brought Oscar and Emmy-nominated writer/director/showrunner Jonathan Nolan to Dublin for a masterclass.