2020 Award Recipient

Writer, director, and producer Brad Falchuk (The Politician, Glee, American Horror Story, Pose) has been named the recipient of Writers Guild of America West’s 2020 Valentine Davies Award in recognition of his positive impact on young writers through his work and efforts to improve literacy and promote self-confidence through arts education in schools.

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Falchuk’s honorary service award will be presented at the 2020 Writers Guild Awards West Coast ceremony on Saturday, February 1, at the Beverly Hilton.

“Brad Falchuk sees the world as a better place when everyone has a chance to tell their story, and his commitment to that vision extends far beyond the works he has created,” said WGAW President David A. Goodman. “Whether it is giving a voice to diverse characters on television or through his work with the Young Storytellers Foundation, he has worked tirelessly to promote the creative arts as a positive way for young people to develop themselves.”

Falchuk is one of the founding members of The Young Storytellers Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to develop literacy through the art of storytelling. The Foundation launched in 1997 as a small in-school program by Falchuk, Mikkel Bondesen, and Andrew Barrett after they learned about cuts to creative arts programs in Los Angeles public schools. The organization, whose mission is to develop literacy through the art of storytelling, has since expanded to serve more than 100 schools in Los Angeles, New York City and Denmark.

Falchuk currently sits on the National Advisory Board for the Foundation, which facilitates self-expression and self-discovery in underprivileged students by mentoring them through the process of writing their own short screenplays and having those screenplays performed by actors.

A WGAW member since 2002, Falchuk has been a writer, producer, and director on some of the most original and celebrated television shows of the last two decades. Most recently, he co-created the Netflix series ​The Politician​, which debuted in September 2019, also serving as an executive producer, writer and director.

Falchuk is also co-creator and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed FX limited series American Horror Story which has received 89 Emmy, nine Golden Globe, and two Writers Guild nominations to date. The latest season, titled 1984, premiered this past fall. He was also co-creator, executive producer, writer and director on FOX’s Scream Queens​, FOX’s 9-1-1​, and FX’s Writers Guild Award, Golden Globe, and Emmy-nominated, groundbreaking series Pose. He was also an executive producer on the Emmy​-winning limited series American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson and The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

Additionally, Falchuk was co-creator and executive producer on ​Glee, for which he earned three Writers Guild Award nominations for Comedy Series and New Series, an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and two Producers Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television. Glee won six Emmys of the series’ 35 Emmy nominations, garnered ten Golden Globe nominations, and won 2010 and 2011 Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series (Comedy or Musical). He also served as executive producer on the critically-acclaimed cable series Nip/Tuck.

Falchuk recently signed a multi-year deal with Netflix to develop, write, produce, and direct new series through his Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision banner.

He received his master’s degree from the American Film Institute.

The WGAW’s Valentine Davies Award honors Guild members whose humanitarian efforts and service have brought dignity and honor to writers everywhere. Past recipients include Norman Lear, Larry Gelbart, Tom Schulman, Carl Reiner, Susannah Grant, Phil Rosenthal, Sam Simon, Ben Affleck, John August, Richard Curtis, and most recently Dustin Lance Black.