Chris Donahue (born John Christopher Donahue) is an American film and television producer. He began his career as a producer in television news and documentaries, then transitioned to narrative film and television at the American Film Institute. Donahue's work has been honored with numerous awards including an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film for producing '' Visas and Virtue'' (1998), and an Emmy for his documentary ''Be Good, Smile Pretty'' (2003). His love for documentaries has him returning to the form often, and his current interests have him exploring themes in

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

Creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed Literature ...

, Immersive Storytelling ( VR, AR, 360), and Social Impact Entertainment. Donahue founded West Main Street Productions, and is a member of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

, the

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...

, and the

Producers Guild of America The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 8,000 members of the producing establishment w ...

. He is a board member for the

Humanitas Prize The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing, and is given to writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser—also the founder of Paulist P ...

Early life and education

Donahue was born in Dallas, TX. Donahue attended Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. He did undergraduate studies at

Loyola University (New Orleans) Loyola University New Orleans is a private Jesuit university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit founder, Saint Ign ...

, where he received a bachelor's degree in Communications. He holds graduate degrees from the American Film Institute ( MFA) and the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley ( M.Div. and Th.M.). One of the films he cited as early influences that he grew up watching include '' Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid''. The first film he ever watched in a theater was

Robert Wise Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was an American film director, producer, and editor. He won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his musical films ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of ...

's film ''The Sound of Music''.

Career

Donahue's first professional job was at

WWL-TV WWL-TV (channel 4) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Slidell-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WUPL (channel 54). Both stations share studios on Rampart St ...

in New Orleans. Donahue received two consecutiv
New Orleans Press Club
Awards, for the documentaries ''Russia: A Prison of Nations'' and ''Nicaragua: A Land Divided''. Through

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

affiliate work he was selected as a

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

Fellow at WGBH in Boston. He produced hundreds of hours of local news, documentary, and children's television in New Orleans before moving to Los Angeles in 1991 to attend the American Film Institute (AFI). After AFI, he worked for

Paulist Productions Paulist Productions is a Catholic film production company founded in 1960 by the Paulist priest Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser. The Paulists describe the company as a "creator of films and television programs that uncover God’s presence in the ...

as the Director of Development and was a co-producer on '' Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story'' (1996) written by John Wells, starring

Moira Kelly Moira Kelly (born on March 6, 1968 in Queens, New York) is an American actress. She is known for portraying Kate Moseley in the 1992 film ''The Cutting Edge'' as well as single mother Karen Roe on the teen drama '' One Tree Hill''. She is also k ...

and

Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...

. In 1998 he produced the short '' Visas and Virtue'' (1997), a narrative depiction of

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

rescuer

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through ...

. For this he received an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film (shared with director

Chris Tashima Christopher Inadomi Tashima (born March 24, 1960) is a Japanese American actor and director. He is co-founder of the entertainment company Cedar Grove Productions and Artistic Director of its Asian American theatre company, Cedar Grove OnStage. T ...

). He co-founded

Cedar Grove Productions Cedar Grove Productions is an independent production company based in Los Angeles, California, specializing in media and theatre arts representing the Asian Pacific American community. Media projects are educational, with Visual Communications ...

in 1996 with Tashima and playwright Tim Toyama to produce the short film. Donahue was also the Executive Producer of the drama '' Day of Independence'' (2003) with

. Donahue produced the 2000 feature, '' Straight Right'' and won an Emmy Award for the documentary, ''Be Good, Smile Pretty'' (2003), broadcast on the

series,

Independent Lens ''Independent Lens'' is a weekly television series airing on PBS featuring documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of ''Independent Lens'' were hosted by Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence H ...

. From 2000 to 2006, Donahue served as the first full-time Executive Director for the

, an annual writer's award that celebrates films and television shows that not only entertain, but also enrich the viewing public. From 2006 to 2010, Donahue served as executive vice-president at th
Shephard/Robin Company
creators of the

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

television drama, ''

The Closer ''The Closer'' is an American television police procedural starring Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Leigh Johnson, a Los Angeles Police Department deputy chief. A CIA-trained interrogator originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Brenda has a reputation as a c ...

'' and FX's ''

Nip/Tuck ''Nip/Tuck'' is an American medical drama television series created by Ryan Murphy that aired on FX in the United States from July 22, 2003, to March 3, 2010. The series, which also incorporates elements of crime drama, black comedy, family dra ...

''. Donahue served as producer on the

Lifetime Television Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...

series, '' State of Mind'' starring

Lili Taylor Lili Anne Taylor (born February 20, 1967) is an American actress. She came to prominence with supporting parts in the films ''Mystic Pizza'' (1988) and '' Say Anything...'' (1989), before establishing herself as one of the key figures of 1990s i ...

as well as the TNT drama, '' Trust Me'' starring

Eric McCormack Eric James McCormack (born April 18, 1963) is a Canadian-American actor and singer, known for his roles as Will Truman in the NBC sitcom ''Will & Grace'', Grant MacLaren in Netflix's ''Travelers'' and Dr. Daniel Pierce in the TNT crime drama ...

Tom Cavanagh Thomas Cavanagh (born October 26, 1963) is a Canadian actor. He is known for a variety of roles on American television, including starring roles in '' Ed'' (2000–2004), ''Love Monkey'' (2006) and '' Trust Me'' (2009), and recurring roles on ...

, and

Monica Potter Monica Gregg Potter (née Brokaw; born June 30, 1971) is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles in the films ''Con Air'' (1997), ''Patch Adams'' (1998), and '' Along Came a Spider'' (2001). She also appeared in the horror films ...

. In 2011, Donahue produced the award-winning A&E series '' Longmire '' for

Warner Brothers Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division o ...

, producing every episode of season 1 through 3. The western crime drama lasted for 6 seasons, and was based on Walt Longmire, the dedicated and unflappable sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, starring Robert Taylor,

Lou Diamond Phillips Louis Diamond Phillips ( born Upchurch; February 17, 1962) is a Filipino-American actor and film director. His breakthrough came when he starred as Ritchie Valens in the biographical drama film '' La Bamba'' (1987). For ''Stand and Deliver'' (19 ...

, and

Katee Sackhoff Katee Sackhoff (born April 8, 1980) is an American actress known for playing Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel's television program ''Battlestar Galactica'' (2004–2009), Niko Breckenridge on the Netflix series '' Another ...

. Longmire won several awards including a Key Art Award in 2013, a Red Nation Film Award of Excellence in 2013, and a

Prism Award The Entertainment Industries Council is a United States non-profit organization founded in 1983 that promotes the depiction of accurate health and social issues in film, television, music, and comic books. The Council provides guidelines on the depi ...

in 2014. The pilot was also nominated for Best Television Episode Teleplay in 2013 at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Donahue was president of

from July 2014 to 2018, where he sourced, negotiated, and established a multi-million dollar, three picture co-financing and co-production arrangement with

MarVista Entertainment MarVista Entertainment is an American production company, based in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. The company mainly provides financing and some original content, mainly made-for-TV films and direct-to-SVOD titles, many of which are carried b ...

. Some of his notably films at Paulist were ''Miracle Maker'' (2015), ''The Dating Project'' (2018), and ''Every Other Holiday'' (2018). While there he sourced and performed due diligence on potential internet and digital media investments, including streaming video platforms and other early- and mid-stage digital media companies. Most recently, Donahue was the Executive Producer of ''Caffeine & Gasoline: Evolution of the American Rocker'' (2020), a documentary about the history of the rocker and cafe clubs that started the movement in East London, speaking with Northern Rockers and Ace Cafe patrons. Filmmaker Steven 'Fenix' Maes and his crew spent two years documenting vintage bike enthusiasts, custom bike builders, and cafe racer clubs around the United States, searching for what it means to be an American Rocker. Donahue works as a consultant and coach, and has worked with filmmakers and investors at every stage of production. Donahue is a member of numerous boards, organizations, and committees within the entertainment industry, such as: * Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences: Member, Grants & Scholars Committee, Student Academy Awards Judge * Nicholls Fellowship, Judge * The

HUMANITAS ''Humanitas'' is a Latin noun meaning human nature, civilization, and kindness. It has uses in the Enlightenment, which are discussed below. Classical origins of term The Latin word ''humanitas'' corresponded to the Greek concepts of '' philanthr ...

Prize, board member *

, Member * Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Member * University Film & Video Association, Member * Society of Human Resource Managers, Member In addition to his producing credits, Donahue has taught film courses at the American Film Institute, Chapman University,

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

, and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. He has spoken on numerous panels at film festivals, and conducted workshops at leading universities and colleges. His teaching competencies include: The Business of Media, Directing,

Documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

, Film and Television Production, and

Screenwriting Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession. Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, de ...

Filmography (producer)

Honors and awards

Donahue has won one

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

and one Emmy Award. He has also received the Crystal Heart award

Heartland Film Festival The Heartland International Film Festival is a film festival held each October in Indianapolis, Indiana. The festival was first held in 1992, its goal is to "inspire filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion pictu ...

, and an Alumni Service Award from the Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. Donahue received two consecutiv
New Orleans Press Club
Awards, for the documentaries ''Russia: A Prison of Nations'' and ''Nicaragua: A Land Divided''. Through

affiliate work he was selected as a

Fellow at WGBH in Boston.

References

External links

* * *
Cedar Grove Productions site''Longmire'' official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donahue, Chris Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Producers who won the Live Action Short Film Academy Award Film producers from Texas Television producers from Texas American documentary filmmakers People from Dallas Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley alumni Loyola Marymount University faculty AFI Conservatory alumni Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas alumni