Television Stars Who Successfully Moved Behind the Camera

Desi Arnaz played Ricky Ricardo in I Love Lucy, but his bigger legacy was behind the scenes. He insisted the show be filmed on 35mm with three cameras before a live audience, working with the cinematographer Karl Freund, and Desilu kept ownership of the films, which made reruns possible and set the sitcom production model still used today.

Lucille Ball bought out Desi Arnaz's share of Desilu after their divorce and in 1962 became the first woman to run a major television studio. Against the doubts of her own board, she backed the pilots for Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, two series that shaped television for decades after she sold the company in 1967.

Carl Reiner was a performer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows when he wrote and starred in a 1960 pilot about his own life as a comedy writer. When it failed to sell, the producer Sheldon Leonard persuaded him to recast the lead with Dick Van Dyke, and as creator, writer and producer of The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961 to 1966) Reiner set the standard for the smart workplace-and-home sitcom.

Mary Tyler Moore founded MTM Enterprises with her husband Grant Tinker in 1969 to make her own sitcom, about a single woman building a career in a newsroom. The company went on to produce Rhoda, Lou Grant, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere, a run that reshaped both American comedy and drama.

Ronnie Barker was one of Britain's best-loved comic actors, but he also quietly wrote a large share of The Two Ronnies under the pen name Gerald Wiley, including the famous Four Candles sketch, so that material would be judged on merit rather than his name. The ruse fooled colleagues for years and shows how much of the show's craft came from its star.

Leonard Nimoy, Mr Spock in Star Trek, made his feature directing debut with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), then directed Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), the most light-hearted and commercially successful of the original films. Three Men and a Baby (1987) followed, proving he could direct a hit far from the Enterprise.

Henry Winkler found it hard to get acting work after a decade as the Fonz in Happy Days, so he turned to producing. As an executive producer of MacGyver (1985 to 1992) he helped create a hero who solved problems without guns, and decades later his acting comeback in Barry won him his first Emmy in 2018.

Oprah Winfrey founded Harpo Productions in 1986 and took ownership of The Oprah Winfrey Show, becoming one of the first Black women to own a major production company. Harpo went on to produce films such as Beloved and Selma and television including Queen Sugar, and in 2011 she launched her own cable network, OWN, which had a difficult first few years before finding its audience.

Jennifer Saunders built her name in the double act French and Saunders, then developed one of its sketches into Absolutely Fabulous (1992), which she wrote and starred in as Edina Monsoon. Its satire of fashion and PR culture became an international hit, and she has kept writing for television, stage and film ever since.

Tina Fey became Saturday Night Live's first female head writer in 1999 and an on-screen star on Weekend Update. She drew on that experience to create 30 Rock (2006), co-created Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with Robert Carlock and adapted her screenplay for Mean Girls into a Broadway musical, building a writing career as substantial as her fame.

Mindy Kaling wrote for The Office while playing Kelly Kapoor, then created and starred in The Mindy Project (2012), one of the first American network sitcoms led by a South Asian woman. Never Have I Ever and The Sex Lives of College Girls followed, built around young women of colour rarely centred in mainstream comedy.

While starring in Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler backed Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson's web series and executive produced it as Broad City (2014). She co-created Russian Doll with Natasha Lyonne and Leslye Headland and directed the film Wine Country and the documentary Lucy and Desi, using her clout to bring other people's voices to the screen.

Sharon Horgan worked odd jobs into her thirties before co-writing and starring in Pulling (2006), which the BBC cancelled after two series. Catastrophe (2015), made with Rob Delaney, made her name, and her company Merman has since produced Motherland and her own Apple series Bad Sisters, building a slate of sharp, adult comedy-dramas.

Michaela Coel adapted her one-woman play into the sitcom Chewing Gum (2015), then turned down a reported seven-figure Netflix offer because it would not let her keep rights to her next show. I May Destroy You (2020), which she wrote, co-directed and starred in, won her the Emmy for writing and became a landmark drama about consent.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge turned her Edinburgh Fringe monologue into Fleabag (2016), writing and starring in it, and served as head writer on the first series of Killing Eve. Fleabag's fourth-wall-breaking second series swept the 2019 Emmys, and both shows changed what British television thought a female antihero could be.

Donald Glover was best known as Troy in Community when he created Atlanta (2016), staffing its writers' room largely with Black writers new to television. He won Emmys for acting and for directing comedy, the latter a first for a Black director, and the show's surreal, unpredictable episodes widened what a half-hour series could do.

Issa Rae built an audience with her YouTube series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl (2011) and developed it into HBO's Insecure (2016), which she co-created, wrote and starred in. Her company HOORAE now produces shows such as Rap Sh!t and supports new Black writers and directors, turning one web series into a production pipeline.

Pamela Adlon worked for decades as a voice actor, including Bobby Hill in King of the Hill, and as a supporting player in Californication before co-creating Better Things (2016). She directed every episode from the second series, and after allegations against her co-creator Louis C.K. in 2017 she cut ties and ran the show alone through its final series in 2022.

Jason Bateman was a teenage sitcom actor who directed his first television episodes at eighteen, then saw his acting career stall before Arrested Development revived it. On Ozark (2017 to 2022) he starred, executive produced and directed many episodes, setting the show's cold, blue look, and won the Emmy for drama directing in 2019.

Bill Hader spent eight years as an impressionist on Saturday Night Live, then co-created Barry (2018) with Alec Berg. He directed a growing share of its episodes, including the whole final series, turning a dark comedy about a hitman who wants to act into one of the most formally ambitious shows of its time.

Natasha Lyonne went from child actor to troubled years out of work, then rebuilt her career with Orange Is the New Black. She co-created, wrote, directed and starred in Russian Doll (2019), and later starred in and directed episodes of Poker Face (2023), becoming a creator with a distinctively wry, New York voice.

Quinta Brunson first found an audience through short comedy videos on Instagram and BuzzFeed, where several pitched shows went nowhere. She created, wrote and starred in Abbott Elementary (2021), inspired by her mother's work as a Philadelphia teacher, and won Emmys for both writing and acting, reviving the broadcast network sitcom.