Lives of Consequence
Bradley “Brad” D. Falchuk ’93, L.H.D.’14
Emmy Award-winning Writer, Director and Producer; Creator of Glee and American Horror Story
Brad Falchuk, the award-winning co-creator of Glee and American Horror Story, has cemented himself as an important creative force in the contemporary “golden era” of television.
Falchuk discovered his passion for writing, producing and storytelling while taking film classes with Associate Professor of English Elisabeth Lyon. After declaring an English major with an emphasis in theatre, Falchuk wrote a play during his junior year and completed an independent study with Lyon where he turned the play into a film that helped him secure admission to graduate school at the American Film Institute (AFI).
After earning a degree in screenwriting from AFI, Falchuk began writing spec scripts (sample episodes of existing TV shows) that he sent to agents, leading to numerous jobs writing for TV shows such as Mutant X (2001), Earth: Final Conflict (2001-2002) and Veritas: The Quest (2003), before he was hired by Ryan Murphy to work on the first season of Nip/Tuck. This relationship proved to be invaluable as the pair went on to create Glee, along with Ian Brennan.
Glee premiered in 2009, and Falchuk, Murphy and Brennan received two Writers Guild of America Award nominations for Best Comedy Series and Best New Series. That year, the show garnered 16 Emmy nominations and four wins. In 2010, Glee earned the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical Series.
After that early success, Falchuk signed a two-year deal with 20th Century Fox Television that involved further work on Glee as well as the development of other projects for the studio. In 2011, he and Murphy co-created the FX horror drama American Horror Story, which has won more than a dozen Emmy Awards and been nominated for more than 75. In 2015, Falchuk and Murphy debuted the horror/black comedy series Scream Queens. The anthology series American Crime Story, for which Falchuk is an executive producer, premiered in 2016 to commercial and critical praise, garnering Falchuk Emmys and Golden Globes for Outstanding Limited Series its first two seasons, The People v. O.J. Simpson (2016) and The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018).
Falchuck’s most recent projects include the Netflix series The Politician (2019), a political satire set at an elite high school, and the acclaimed FX drama Pose (2018), which explores the LGBTQ ballroom subculture and communities of color during the peak of the AIDS crisis in New York City.
In addition to his successful career, Falchuk is giving back as the co-creator of The Young Storytellers Foundation, which helps develop literacy and inspire children to discover the power of their own voice. Started in 2003, the program provides under-served, arts-poor public schools in the greater Los Angeles area with an opportunity to write stories and see them brought to life by famous actors through performance using group exercises and one-on-one mentoring.
In 2014, Falchuk delivered the HWS Commencement address and received an honorary doctorate from the Colleges.