Explaining Hollywood: How to get a job as a TV director
LOS ANGELES — When Ava DuVernay launched "Queen Sugar" on the OWN Network in 2016, she hired only women as directors — a practice she's continued through six seasons of the Louisiana-set family drama.
About 17% of TV episodes from the 2015-16 season were directed by women, according to statistics from the Directors Guild of America, so she wanted to give directing opportunities to accomplished women who were still struggling to get work. A more recent DGA report shows improvement: Women made up 34% of the directors of the 2019-20 season.
Historically, network television was seen as creatively limiting, compared with film. But now, especially with the rise of streaming, television is not only widely respected but also where most of the job opportunities are.
But it's still extremely competitive, regardless of gender.
"TV is such a different structure and hierarchical system than film, so it's always hard for any film director who's not an A-lister, let alone a female film director, to get their first gig in TV directing," said Bertha Bay-Sa Pan.
Pan has been directing since she won awards for her first short, "Face," in 1997, which eventually became her first feature film of the same name in 2002. She's since directed a second feature and has continued to work both in the American and Chinese film industries. But she just directed her first TV episode — on "Queen Sugar" — in April.
Shaz Bennett started as a film festival programmer, eventually becoming the director of programming for the
