Thomas Schlamme is the President of the Directors Guild of America, and has been on the Guild’s National Board since 2005. He previously served as Third Vice President, and before that as Fifth Vice President. Mr. Schlamme was the 2017 BA/FLTTA Negotiations Committee Co-Chair along with Michael Apted, and served in that same role in 2014. He was also a member of the Negotiations Committee in 2008. He has been a member of the Western Directors Council since 2003, a member of the Creative Rights Committee since 2001, and is also a founding member of the DGA Political Action Committee’s Leadership Council

Mr. Schlamme, who is known for his groundbreaking work in television dramas, has been a DGA member since 1978. He began his career directing cutting-edge music videos and concert films for Bette Midler in the 1980s, moving from there to directing Whoopi Goldberg and Robert Klein comedy specials for HBO.

Shifting to episodic television, Mr. Schlamme produced and directed Tracey Ullman’s critically acclaimed series Tracey Takes On..., for which he received an Emmy Award, after which he began directing numerous episodes of such hit television series as Mad About You, Friends, Ally McBeal, The Practice, Chicago Hope, and ER, for which he won an Emmy nomination for direction of his remarkable live episode. His feature film directing credits include So I Married an Axe Murderer, starring Mike Myers; You So Crazy, starring Martin Lawrence; and Miss Firecracker, starring Holly Hunter and Tim Robbins. Telefilm credits include Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long, starring John Goodman, and Crazy from the Heart, starring Christine Lahti, both for TNT. 

Mr. Schlamme’s long lasting and productive collaboration with writer Aaron Sorkin led to his directing and executive producing three shows together: West Wing, Sports Night, and Studio 60. He also directed and is credited with creating the look of such hit series as Spin City, The Larry Sanders Show, and Parenthood, along with Invasion, Boston Public, Mr. Sunshine, Sports Night, The West Wing, Studio 60, Jack & Bobby, Murder in the First, Pan Am and Manhattan. In addition to directing episodes of other TV dramas such as The Americans, and the mini-series When We Rise for ABC, he continues to develop projects under his company Shoe Money Productions. His latest project SNOWFALL will premiere on FX in 2017. 

Mr. Schlamme has won three DGA Awards, having been nominated eight times, and has won nine Emmy Awards.