CHRIS DONAHUE

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Academy Award and Emmy winning producer Chris Donahue is involved in film, television and new media.

Proven optimistic and entrepreneurial leader who takes projects from inception through delivery. Donahue's experience as a creative producer helps him see and implement solutions for what others see as complicated and intractable problems.  

 

Donahue produced the pilot of the hit Netflix series Longmire in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He became creatively involved in the project during its development phase from a novel, and continued to oversee production for three seasons.

He served as EVP of the Shephard/Robin Company, a Warner Bros. Television based company, for five years. While at Shephard/Robin (Nip/Tuck for FX, The Closer for TNT), Donahue was involved in the development and production of television series including State of Mind for Lifetime, trust me for TNT, and Longmire for A&E/Netflix. Donahue was instrumental in creating, executing and managing product integrations and digital assets across multiple platforms for trust me, an advertising related drama. These brand integrations with corporations such as General Motors, Anheuser-Busch, and Unilever generated over a million dollars in new revenue streams. Shephard/Robin sold an additional 10 pilots during his tenure.

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Prior to joining Shephard/Robin, Donahue was the Executive Director of the HUMANITAS Prize, one of screenwriting’s most prestigious awards. He received an Academy Award for Visas and Virtue, a narrative depiction of Holocaust rescuer Chiune Sugihara. Donahue also received an Emmy Award for the documentary Be Good Smile Pretty, broadcast on the PBS series Independent Lens.

While living and working in New Orleans, Donahue received two consecutive New Orleans PressClub Awards for the documentaries Russia: A Prison of Nations and Nicaragua: A Land Divided. He was selected as a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Fellow at WGBH in Boston and is a graduate of the American Film Institute and The Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California.

He is a Dallas native and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and the Producers Guild of America. 

 

CONSULTANT

Donahue has led and advised both for profit, non­profit companies, large and small. Most recently he served as President of Paulist Productions where he sourced, negotiated and established a multi­million dollar, three picture co­financing and co­production arrangement with MarVista Entertainment. Sourced and performed due diligence on potential internet and digital media investments, including streaming video platforms and other early­ and mid­stage digital media companies. He has consulted with filmmakers at every stage of production.

  • Consulting with and advising a Meiji University professor on the development and financing of a  documentary about John Hershey’s landmark 1946 New Yorker article “Hiroshima.”
  • Consulting Producer, General “Blackjack” Pershing, PBS Fall 2017. The film was conceived, written and produced by Professor Barney McCoy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.