Lawrence Trilling (born June 29, 1966) is an American television director, producer, showrunner, and writer. He has directed nearly 150 hours of television to date, and served as Producer/Executive Producer on such series asFelicity,Alias,Parenthood,Pushing Daisies,Goliath, andOuter Range. He has directed episodes of many popular series, includingScrubs,Monk,Masters of Sex,Damages,Crazy Ex-Girlfriend andSnowfall.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Trilling was born in Wayne, New Jersey, and moved to Santa Monica, California, when he was three. AtLincoln Jr. High, Trilling met fellow future directorMatt Reeves, who inspired Trilling with his Super 8 film camera and editing system.^[6]  Together, they co-wrote several films, which Reeves directed and Trilling starred in. One of those films,The Loser, was screened at a student film festival at theNuart Theater in West Los Angeles, where they befriended fellow filmmaker,J.J. Abrams.^[7]

Trilling graduated fromSanta Monica High School in 1984.  He attendedColumbia University and graduated with a B.A. in English Literature in 1988, and received an MFA in Film and Television Production from UCLA in 1992.^[8]

Trilling's first break was selling the screenplayDelivered,  a black comedy he co-wrote with his childhood friend and fellow pizza delivery driver, Andrew Liotta.  The script, about an angry, overeducated pizza man who is mistaken for a local serial killer, was produced by Banner Entertainment and premiered at the Seattle Film Festival in 1998. The same year, he directed the filmDinner and Driving, a romantic comedy about the anxiety of commitment, which he co-wrote with his cousin, Steven Wolfson. The film played multiple festivals and aired on HBO and Lifetime, and later streamed on Netflix.^[9]

Trilling made his television directorial debut in Season One ofFelicity, when he directed the acclaimed episode "The Fugue." He became a Producer/Director for season two and directed 14 episodes over the show's four seasons. On the strength of his work on Felicity, he was hired to direct two other dramas for the WB Network;Roswell forJason Katims andPopular,Ryan Murphy's debut series.^[10]

After their collaboration onFelicity, Trilling followed J. J. Abrams toAlias, where he directed episodes throughout season two and became a Producer/Director for seasons three and four. He also wrote and directed the filmPorn n' Chicken, which was Comedy Central's first original movie.^[11] After this, Trilling became a frequent director on the hit NBC comedy series,Scrubs, helming six episodes in the first two seasons.

Trilling then worked for Warner Bros. and ABC  as Producer/Director onInvasion andPushing Daisies. During this period, he also directed episodes ofDamages,Monk,Brothers & Sisters,Life, andStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip, among others.

In 2010, he directed the feature film comedy,Group Sex, which he co-wrote withGreg Grunberg, starringHenry Winkler.

In 2010, Trilling joinedJason Katims to become an Executive Producer/Director for the acclaimed NBC dramaParenthood. Praised for its honest, funny and emotional examination of family life, it was one of the first television shows to raise awareness ofAutism Spectrum Disorder. The show ran for six seasons and Trilling directed 38 episodes. While working on the show forUniversal, he also sold two pilots as a writer.^[12]

Between 2013 and 2017, Trilling directed episodes of the popular showsMasters of Sex,Rectify,Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,Agent Carter, andSnowfall, among others.

In 2016, Trilling teamed up with David E. Kelly to direct the pilot ofGoliath forAmazon Prime Video, for which Billy Bob Thornton won theGolden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2017. He took over as Showrunner in season two and ran the show for its next two seasons until it concluded in 2021.^[13] He also directed the Pilot and first three episodes ofCondor, a re-imagining of themovie from 1975.

From 2019 to 2023, Trilling was under an overall deal at Amazon Studios. In addition to show runningGoliath, he sold multiple projects into development and came aboard to direct and Executive ProduceOuter Range, starringJosh Brolin.^[14]

• Lawrence Trilling atIMDb

• Film directors from New Jersey
• Film producers from New Jersey
• American male screenwriters
• American television directors
• American television producers
• American television writers
• Living people
• American male television writers
• Columbia College, Columbia University alumni

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