Panelist:Katy Garretson
Director
Katy Garretson just finished directing a couple of episodes of the new Lifetime Network series, "Rita Rocks," and is schedule for a new Nickelodeon show, "True Jackson," in November. She also recently ventured into "little-kids" programming with the new Jim Henson Company's "Sid the Science Kid" for PBS, and this past spring Katy produced her first documentary (on The Arctic and global warming) - which opened the Documentary Competition at The Chicago Film Festival on October 17th. A twenty-year member of the Directors Guild of America, Katy's path has been paved with all types of productions in a variety of positions.
A graduate of The University of Southern California, with degrees in both Journalism and Business Communications, Katy got the "film bug" while working on her college job as a tour guide at Universal Studios. Following graduation, and a brief run as a production assistant and stand-in, she was accepted into the Directors Guild training Program. Her two years as a DGA Trainee prepped her as an assistant director member of the Directors Guild of America. During her first few years as a DGA member, Katy worked mainly on features and movies-of-the-week. Her credits as an AD include "Star Trek VI," "Clifford," "Switch," "The Specialist," over a dozen MOWs, and commercials for such companies as AT&T and Honda. Then she got the call for a little show called "Frasier," and decided it would be fun to go to work and laugh every day.
In the sixth season of "Frasier" Katy got her first opportunity to direct an episode - and was nominated for a DGA Award for this initial effort. More episodes followed, and a couple of seasons later she branched out to other shows. Katy left her AD days behind. Her current list of Directing credits include "Titus," "Reba," "Girlfriends," "Freddie," "George Lopez," and a whole bunch of shows you've probably never heard of. In 2007, she directed her first batch of "new media" episodes: 30 three-minute interstitial "bitcoms" for TBS called "lovebites." Her venture into the documentary world occurred during the Dark Days of the recent writer's strike. Katy's now hoping for a resurgence of traditional sitcoms, her favorite type of production, and wants everyone to stop watching reality tv!
Throughout her career, Katy has spoken on panels for the DGA, Women in Film, the Newport Beach Film Festival, Film Oregon Alliance, and the TV Academy, of which she is also a member. She has been profiled in Emmy magazine in an article on women directors, The Hollywood Reporter as "One to Watch," and was one of the directors on the cover of the DGA Magazine for the issue titled "Directing Comedy." Katy also has taught a class at AFI on sitcom directing.
