Biography

Alan Poul is an American film and television producer and director with a long and distinguished record. Among the shows on which he has served as both Executive Producer and Director are "Six Feet Under," "The Newsroom," "Tales of the City," "Swingtown," and "The Eddy." Over the course of his career he has received an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Producers Guild Awards, three Peabody Awards, and six GLAAD Awards. Other television producing credits include "My So-Called Life" (Producer), "MotherFatherSon" (Executive Producer), "The Pacific Century" (Producer, Emmy Award), and "Westworld" (Consulting Producer, Season 1). Additional television directing credits include "Rome," "Big Love," "Grace and Frankie," "The Big C," and the pilots for "GCB" and "Perception." In 2003 he was nominated for both the DGA Award and the Directing Emmy for the "Nobody Sleeps" episode of "Six Feet Under."

Prominent in his television work has been his long association with author Armistead Maupin, resulting in his producing all four miniseries based on Maupin's "Tales of the City" books, including the most recent iteration which aired on Netflix in 2019.

On the feature side, Poul's producing credits include Paul Schrader's "Mishima," Ridley Scott's "Black Rain," Bernard Rose's "Candyman," Scott Winant's "Til There Was You," Jean-Marc Vallée's "Los Locos," Skip Woods' "Thursday," and Fina Torres' "Woman on Top." He made his feature directing debut in 2010 with "The Back-up Plan," starring Jennifer Lopez and Alex O'Loughlin.

Poul graduated from Yale University with a degree in Japanese Language and Literature, which led to his involvement in "Mishima" and "Black Rain." He is currently (2020) revisiting his Japanese roots as Executive Producer and director of HBO Max's upcoming "Tokyo Vice." He serves on the Boards of Directors of Film Independent and Playwrights Horizons, and on the International Outreach Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Previous board service includes The Producers Guild of America, Outfest, and GLAAD.