Women Behind the Scenes Spotlight: Bethany Rooney

Today’s Women Behind the Scenes spotlight is shone on Television and Film Director and Author Bethany Rooney.

Bethany has been at the helm of over two hundred episodes of prime time TV shows for over 30 years, getting her first big break thanks to producer Bruce Paltrow (the late husband of veteran actress Blythe Danner and father of Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow). That first big directing job was on the acclaimed police drama St. Elsewhere back in 1982. Prior to her taking the helm as director she worked on the TV series The White Shadow for which Paltrow was the series creator.

She cut her teeth at St. Elsewhere as an Associate Producer and Director throughout most of the 80’s; but she also directed episodes of China Beach, the original Beauty and the Beast, Hooperman and The Wonder Years (among others).

In the 1990’s, Bethany directed a lot of TV shows. Among them were the short-lived series Elvis, Dream On, Melrose Place, Sisters, Picket Fences, Beverly Hills 90210, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and the short-lived shows Hyperion Bay, Snoops and Jack & Jill.

It was also during this decade that Bethany directed the made-for-TV movies Mixed Blessings, Remembrance and Full Circle (all based on the Danielle Steel novels) as well as Locked Up: A Mother’s Rage that starred Charlie’s Angels alum Cheryl Ladd and She Cried No, starring Candace Cameron and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (among several others).

Over the course of the next ten years, Bethany would be the director of countless TV shows, including series like Ed, Touched By An Angel, Ally McBeal, Dawson’s Creek, Boston Public, Joan of Arcadia, Everwood, One Tree Hill, What About Brian, Crossing Jordan, Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, Las Vegas, The Starter Wife, Ugly Betty, Eli Stone, Weeds, Melrose Place, Desperate Housewives, Hellcats, Castle and Brothers & Sisters.

Over the last five (plus) years, she has helmed episodes of Rizzoli & Isles, The Protector, Revenge, GCB, In Plain Sight, Make It or Break It, The Client List, Political Animals, Switched at Birth, Scandal, 90210, The Fosters, Arrow, Betrayal, Nashville, Dallas, Drop Dead Diva, Murder in the First, Parenthood, About a Boy, Hart of Dixie, NCIS: New Orleans, Pretty Little Liars, NCIS, The Originals, The Mysteries of Laura and Criminal Minds.

In 2011, she co-authored, with fellow director Mary Lou Belli, the book “Directors Tell the Story: Master the Craft of Television and Film Directing” that “teaches readers how to become a director: “mastering the technical aspects, appreciating the aesthetic qualities, and practicing solid leadership, all while exuding that “X” factor that distinguishes the excellent director from the merely ”  The second edition of the book will be released in June 2016.

Bethany has built a great reputation as “an actor’s director who leads with gentle command, making her part of an elite group of television industry leaders.” She also serves as the co-chair of the Director Guild Associations’s Diversity Committee, as well as the Women’s Steering Committee, and shares her knowledge of the craft by teaching the intensive Warner Brothers Directing Workshop.

You can learn more about Bethany at her website and you can follow her on Twitter @BRooneydirector.