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Paris Barclay — news, coverage & facts — IJR

2010s

In 2011, Barclay became the executive producer and primary director for the fourth season of FX's Sons of Anarchy, a role he continued through the seventh and final season.

In 2013, Barclay directed Glee episodes "Diva" and "Lights Out". earning an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for “Diva.”

In 2014, Barclay again directed Sons of Anarchy's season premiere and penultimate episodes, along with Glee's milestone “100,” which brought his third Emmy nomination for Glee. During this period, he also directed episodes of The Good Wife, Steven Spielberg's Extant starring Halle Berry, the Tommy Schlamme/Sam Shaw period drama Manhattan, and Glee's emotional flashback episode "2009," the first half of the series finale.

In 2015, Barclay served as executive producer/director on FX’s The Bastard Executioner, created by Kurt Sutter and starring Stephen Moyer and Katey Sagal. At the end of the year, he directed an episode of FOX’s hit series Empire, the Television Critics Association’s program of the year.

In 2016, Barclay joined the Shondaland family by directing an episode of ABC's critically acclaimed show, Scandal, created/produced by Shonda Rhimes, starring Kerry Washington. In the fall, he went on to executive produce and direct the pilot for FOX’s Pitch, created by Dan Fogelman and Rick Singer. The series starred Kylie Bunbury Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mark Consuelos, and Barclay directed four episodes in total.

In 2017, Barclay executive produced and directed the pilot for another Shondaland drama, Station 19, a Grey's Anatomy spinoff centered on Seattle firefighters. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC and aired over 100 episodes.

In early 2019, Barclay reunited with his Pedro co-writer Dustin Lance Black to produce and direct the Americans for the Equality Act public awareness campaign for the Human Rights Campaign. The series, which launched on March 25, 2019 with a debut video featuring Academy Award-winning actress Sally Field and her son Sam Greisman, highlighted prominent figures in entertainment, sports and beyond speaking about the need for the Equality Act — a crucial civil rights bill that would extend clear, comprehensive non-discrimination protections to millions of LGBTQ people nationwide. The powerhouse lineup of supporters included Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita, Adam Rippon, Shea Diamond, Marcia Gay Harden, Alexandra Billings, Blossom Brown, Justina Machado, Gloria Calderon Kellett, Charlie and Max Carver, and Karamo Brown. The series was modeled after HRC's successful Americans for Marriage Equality campaign and was awarded at the 4th Annual Shorty Social Good awards. It ultimately helped lead to the act's passage in the House of Representatives.

2020s

In May 2021, Barclay directed a virtual reading of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, with Sterling K. Brown, Laverne Cox, Jeremy Pope and Guillermo Diaz.

Also in 2021, after executive producing and directing 14 episodes of Station 19, Barclay directed two episodes of the Ryan Murphy Netflix series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. The series surpassed 1 billion hours viewed on Netflix, one of the few shows in Netflix history to cross the 1 billion hour viewing mark within 60 days. Despite controversies surrounding Dahmer, Barclay’s work on Episode 6, "Silenced," received wide praise. For this episode, Barclay received a 2023 Emmy nomination for Best Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie. Barclay’s work on the series finale, "God of Forgiveness, God of Vengeance," was also nominated by the Hollywood Critics Association.

After Dahmer, Paris reteamed with Ryan Murphy, executive producing and directing two episodes of The Watcher, starring Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale, which debuted as Netflix's #1 most-watched series. He followed this by directing two episodes each of Murphy’s American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the latter starring Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny. He then directed the pilot and executive produced ABC’s Doctor Odyssey, starring Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson. The series drew 13.6 million cross-platform viewers in its first week, marking ABC’s best drama premiere in four years. Paris directed 6 of its 18 episodes.

In 2025, Paris directed two episodes of Season 3 of Shawn Ryan’s Netflix hit The Night Agent, followed by an episode of Brilliant Minds with Zachary Quinto. In 2026, he helmed episodes of Dan Fogelman’s The Land and two episodes of the final season of Paradise, starring Sterling K. Brown. Paris is currently in production on Netflix’s new series The Roman, starring Oscar Isaac and Alec Baldwin, from Billions creators Brian Koppleman and David Levien.

Work in musical theater

In the theater, Barclay presented his original musical On Hold With Music at Manhattan Theater Club in 1984, with a cast including Jason Alexander, Terry Burrell, John Dossett, Ray Gill, and Maureen Brennan. Based on his life in advertising, Barclay wrote and composed the musical in its entirety.

In 1985, he wrote the book, music and lyrics for another musical drama entitled Almos' a Man, based on a short story by Richard Wright – which had been developed in the second year of the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop in New York, under the tutelage of Charles Strouse and Stephen Sondheim. It was produced that year at Soho Rep, receiving a mixed review from The New York Times' Mel Gussow.

After years of directing, Barclay returned to composing in September 2001 with the premiere of a musical based on the collection of letters Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. Called Letters from ‘Nam, the play featured Grammy winner Maureen McGovern, future Tony winner Levi Kreis, and David Burnham. Praised by reviewers and opening days before the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Vietnam musical reportedly hit home emotionally with many who performed in it, produced it, or experienced it.

In 2003, Barclay wrote songs for and co-directed Order My Steps for the Cornerstone Theater Company. The musical play, with book by Tracey Scott Wilson, dealt with the African-American church's response to the AIDS epidemic. The Los Angeles Times called it a "moving tale about the human toll of AIDS."

Barclay returned to Vietnam with One Red Flower: Letters from ‘Nam, a reworked version of the musical was produced at the Village Theater in Issaquah to further acclaim, with Levi Kreis and David Burnham reprising their roles. Other productions followed, with the most significant being Eric Schaeffer's "gritty and emotional" staging at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia in 2004.

In 2008, Barclay presented a reading of One Red Flower in Los Angeles to benefit New Directions, an organization that supports veterans of all wars. Maureen McGovern, Levi Kreis and David Burnham returned in featured roles, with television stars Hunter Parrish and Josh Henderson. Although it was not a full production, again it received glowing reviews, described by Beverly Cohn in the Santa Monica Mirror as an "evening that had the audience smiling with a lump in its throat." Barclay is currently working with Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal) to develop One Red Flower as a television movie, now entitled Letters From ‘Nam.