22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Announces Distinguished Creative Team

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 4, 2015) – Executive Producer Kathy Connell announced the team that will create and implement this year’s 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016 at 8:00 p.m. (ET) / 5:00 p.m. (PT) from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center.

“These are all extremely talented people, and I am consistently impressed by how closely they collaborate on making this both a special occasion and an outstanding broadcast,” said Connell, who has served as producer of the SAG Awards since co-founding it in 1994.

Comprising the Awards Committee for Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) that oversees all stages of the production are Chair JoBeth Williams, Vice Chair Daryl Anderson and Committee members Shelley Fabares, Jason George and Woody Schultz.

The Producers are Gloria Fujita O’Brien and Benn Fleishman. In addition to serving as a producer since the 5th Annual SAG Awards, Fujita O’Brien has produced many television specials, including several Miss America Pageants, CBS: 50 Years from Television City, Motown 45 and Special Olympics Opening Ceremonies for ABC as well as A Gala for the President at Ford's Theater and The First Family's Holiday Gift to America: A Tour of the White House, among others.

Fleishman received his fifth Emmy® nomination as Supervising Producer of Bill Maher Live in D.C. (2015) for HBO Entertainment in association with Bill Maher Productions and Dakota Pictures. His previous Emmy nominations were as Supervising Producer of Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays (2014), Ricky Gervais: Out of England (2008) and Bill Maher: The Decider (2007), all for HBO. He also has line-produced the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the Radio Disney Music Awards and the NBPA Players’ Awards for BET, and has served as Co-Executive Producer for Brian Regan Live from Radio City Music Hall for Comedy Central.

Consulting Producer Mick McCullough has been a mainstay with the SAG Awards since the 2nd annual telecast. He’s served as a producer on numerous variety specials including several Miss America Pageants, Comic Relief (in 2006) and Motown 45 (in 2004), among many others.

A veteran of three previous SAG Awards, Director Alan Carter once again will call the shots on this challenging live event. Carter has directed myriad entertainment industry live honors including the Critics’ Choice Awards, the CMT Music Awards, the People’s Choice Awards and the Miss America and Miss Universe pageants as well as numerous series including most recently The Voice, The Biggest Loser and Shark Tank. A four-time Emmy nominee, he received the honor in 1994 for editing on David Copperfield: 15 Years of Magic.

Returning for the fourth consecutive year is two-time Emmy winning and six-time nominated scribe Dave Boone, who has written for such major entertainment industry events as the Tony Awards®, the Golden Globes®, and the Academy Awards®. In 2015 he served as Head Writer for Oscars® host Neil Patrick Harris.

Production Designers John Shaffner & Joe Stewart have been honored with 34 Emmy nominations and five Emmy wins, an Art Directors Guild Award for the 2006 Emmy Awards, plus four Art Directors Guild nominations. Shaffner was the chair of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Board of Governors, while Stewart has designed the American Music Awards, the People Magazine Awards and NFL Honors, among others.

Lighting Designer Jeffrey Engel is an Emmy-winner and 24-time Emmy nominee for such projects as the 63rd and 64th Academy Awards. He has also led the lighting design for eight Miss America Pageants. 

Musical Director Thomas Caffey has numerous projects to his credit, including composing several pieces of music for the NASA documentary about the space shuttle Endeavor's historic trip to the California Science Center (2013), the feature documentary Champs on Starz (2015), the 2012 Academy Awards, the 2008 Alma Awards and many of UFC’s live events.

Film Segment Producers: Nine-year SAG Awards veteran Paul Fagen will produce this year's In Memoriam homage and the film tribute saluting the accomplishments of SAG Life Achievement Award honoree Carol Burnett. Fagen produces content for live events, specializing in tributes and award shows. With his company P. Fagen Productions, he also produces/directs trailers, industrials and documentaries.

Quinn Monahan will produce this year's salute to SAG-AFTRA union members. A ten-year veteran of the SAG Awards, he has also created film packages for the Oscar telecast, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Costume Designers Guild Awards. He is currently directing and co-producing 50/50 Hollywood, a documentary series dedicated to the careers of actors and artists who are still active after 50 years in the industry.

Talent Producer Maggie Barrett-Caulfield returns for her 16th year at the SAG Awards. Over her career she has booked talent for many of the top awards programs including the Emmy Awards, the Tony Awards, People's Choice Awards, the American Comedy Awards and events such as the Opening Ceremonies for Presidential Inaugurations and the Special Olympics.

Rosalind Jarrett Sepulveda, Executive in Charge of Publicity and a 17-year SAG Awards veteran, was a 2013 recipient of a WIN (Women’s Image Network) Award. She received of the ICG Publicists Bob Yeager Award for community service in 2011 and was previously honored with the Publicists Guild’s 1986 and 1991 Maxwell Weinberg Showmanship Awards.

Supervising Producer Jon Brockett began his career at SAG in 1996 at the New York office in production development and later served as interim co-director of SAG Indie. He joined the SAG Awards in 1998.

Coordinating Producer Cynthia Kistler served as the SAG Awards' associate producer from 2002 to 2014 and was the Awards’ production manager from 1999 to 2001. Recently, she was associate producer on Bill Maher Live from D.C., the Creative Arts Emmy Awards and the Radio Disney Music Awards (2014). Other associate producer credits include the Do Something Awards (2011-2013) for VH1, the NewNowNext Awards for Logo, and the syndicated A Hollywood Christmas Celebration at the Grove.

Event Designer Keith Greco will create the SAG Awards’ grand entrance and showroom décor. Among many recent entertainment and corporate projects, Greco Décor designed the event for the City of Hope -- Spirit of Life Awards and the premiere of the film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 1. He continues to work as a creative director for Cirque du Soleil and as a contributing artist at the Coachella Music Festival. 

Event Supervisor Andrea Wyn Schall, a two-time Special Events Gala Award nominee and author of “Budget Bash – Simply Fabulous Events on a Budget,” coordinates the Awards’ event design and logistics for the 17th year. She and Greco create the Champagne Taittinger toast that opens the SAG Awards Red Carpet.

The menu: For the third consecutive year, guests will dine on innovative seasonal cuisine prepared by Chef Wolfgang Puck’s award winning team, including culinary creations such as grilled chicken with Meyer lemon salsa and puff rice crusted salmon with carrot-ginger puree with crispy shiso leaf.

Punctuating the dinner table design will be the elegantly imaginative floral arrangements by Christopher Matsumoto of C.J. Matsumoto & Sons. C.J. Matsumoto & Sons was co-named Best Florist by Southern California Meetings and Events Magazine in their 2010 Best of Industry Awards.

While the showroom is being transformed, the Shrine Auditorium is being dressed and readied for the Post-awards Gala hosted by PEOPLE, the world’s most successful and popular magazine, and the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a philanthropic leader in the entertainment industry for 70 years. For 20 years EIF and PEOPLE have not only thrown the fabulous SAG Awards after-party to honor actors’ charitable endeavors but also made an annual generous donation to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. Their recent $1 million, multi-year gift supports three SAG-AFTRA Foundation programs over the course of 2014-2016: Storyline Online, a video-based children’s literacy website; the Catastrophic Healthcare Fund; and the Dales Scholarship Program. In 2014, the donation also helped to build and open the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s new state-of-the-art Voiceover lab in the Foundation's Actors Center in New York.