Homeland: Production biographies

2 October 2013

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Alex Gansa

(Executive producer/developed for American television by)

Alex Gansa is the showrunner, co-creator and executive producer of Showtime’s thriller Homeland, starring Claire Danes, Damian Lewis and Mandy Patinkin. Homeland premiered in October 2011 to critical acclaim and the highest debut ratings for a freshman drama on the network. In addition to winning the 2012 and 2013 Golden Globe® for Best Television Series, and a 2012 Emmy® in six different categories, Homeland also won two WGA awards in the categories of Best New Series and Episodic Drama, the Peabody Award, the Television Critics’ Association Award, the Critics’ Choice Television Award and was named one of AFI’s Top Ten Programs of the Year in both 2011 and 2012.

Gansa previously served as an executive producer on the long-running series 24, the CBS series Numb3rs and Dawson’s Creek, and served as a consulting producer on Entourage. He was staffed on the hit series The X-Files and Sisters for NBC, and also created the critically acclaimed ABC series Maximum Bob.

 

Howard Gordon

(Executive producer/developed for American television by)

Howard Gordon is an award-winning television writer, producer and author whose credits include some of TV’s most prolific series.

Gordon is the force behind Homeland (co-created with Alex Gansa), as well as Legends (co-created with Jonathan Levin), Tyrant (co-created with Gideon Raff and Craig Wright) and 24: Live Another Day.

Gordon’s Homeland is one of the biggest hits in Showtime’s history, breaking ratings records and winning an Outstanding Drama Series Emmy® Award, Best Drama Series at the Golden Globes®, Program of the Year at the AFI Awards, Best New Series at the WGA Awards and the prestigious Peabody Award for Outstanding Achievement in Electronic Media.

Gordon was the showrunner and executive producer of the long-running hit television series 24, for which he received both the Golden Globe® and the Emmy® Award for Best Drama Series in 2006.

A 25-year industry veteran, Gordon first gained national attention for his award-winning work on Fox’s groundbreaking series The X-Files, for which he won multiple Golden Globes®. His other credits include Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Beauty and the Beast, Sisters and Spenser: For Hire. He created the innovative 1999 drama Strange World and the Fox series The Inside.

Also an accomplished author, Gordon released his first novel, Gideon’s War, in 2011 and quickly followed it up with the sequel, Hard Target, which was released in January 2012.

Gordon graduated from Princeton University. He is an active member of the Pacific Counsel on International Relations, and former board member and president of the Stroke Association of Southern California.

 

Gideon Raff

(Executive producer/based on the original Israeli series Prisoners of War by)

Writer/director/producer Gideon Raff is the creator of the Israeli drama series Hatufim (Prisoners of War). Written and directed by Raff for Keshet, Prisoners of War is the highest-rated drama series in Israel, and has won nine Israeli Emmy® Awards including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. Raff earned a 2012 Emmy® Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (pilot episode) for Homeland.

Based on Raff’s Prisoners of War, Homeland was the winner of the 2012 Golden Globe® for Best Drama Series and was the recipient of a Peabody Award. As executive producer, Raff also received a Writers Guild Award and The Edgar Award for writing the series pilot.

A graduate of the American Film Institute (2003), Raff directed the award-winning film The Babysitter, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Raff began his industry career working as Doug Liman’s assistant on Mr. & Mrs. Smith. His feature film directorial debut, The Killing Floor, was executive produced by Liman and Avi Arad. Train, Raff’s next feature film, starring Thora Birch (American Beauty), was acquired and released by Lionsgate for domestic distribution.

Raff is also a bestselling author in Israel with his 2001 novel The Way to the Top. Raff completed his undergraduate degree at Tel Aviv University, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

 

Chip Johannessen

(Executive producer)

Chip Johannessen was born in Detroit and educated at Harvard University, where he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon. He later embarked on a short-lived career as a rock guitarist before turning his attention to writing. His past writer-producer credits include Beverly Hills, 90210, The X-Files and 24. He also served as showrunner for Millennium, Moonlight and Dexter.

Johannessen completed a J.D. at UCLA’s School of Law and passed the California bar before joining Homeland as an Executive Producer.

 

Alex Cary

(Executive producer)

Alex Cary was born and raised in London, spent seven years in the military, and came to Los Angeles fresh from the Gulf War in search of a new career in the film industry. After a few years of writing screenplays, ad copy and short stories, Cary turned to TV writing.

In 2007, he was staffed on FX’s The Riches, and then on USA’s In Plain Sight before being hired on the second season of Lie to Me, where he started as story editor and quickly graduated to executive producer and finally showrunner – all in one season. He’s also an executive producer of Homeland.