September 17, 2013
Los Angeles – 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.”
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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 NAACP Image Awards and a Directors Guild of America Award.
His most recent director-producer-writer effort is the documentary Herblock – The Black & the White about the famed Washington Post cartoonist, Herbert L. Block.
Stevens embraced the opportunity to expand his creative horizons into music production when he discovered Bettye LaVette in 2008. Stevens conceived and produced the Bettye LaVette album Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Outstanding Contemporary Blues album in 2011. He produces Beth Hart’s new album in 2014.
In 2009 he wrote and produced We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration. He was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Writing. Additional Stevens television producing credits include The American Film Institute Salutes… from 1993-1998, which was nominated for an Emmy in 1995. His first production in 1993, The Great Ones: The National Sports Awards, was also nominated for an Emmy. For the past eight years, he has also directed and written the TNT cable network production of Christmas in Washington.
His feature film credits include Bad City Blues and Sin both of which he produced and directed. Stevens worked as an associate producer for Terrence Malick on the acclaimed film The Thin Red Line, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards. In 1999, he produced Steven Spielberg’s film history of the 20th century, The Unfinished Journey. It had its premiere on the CBS broadcast of America’s Millennium, the three-hour live television special which he also produced with Quincy Jones and George Stevens, Jr.