Biography

Bethany Rooney began her directing career on the 1980's iconic television show, St. Elsewhere, where she served as Associate Producer. She has since directed more than 250 episodes of prime-time narrative shows, most recently Law & Order, Chicago PD, Law & Order SVU, The Rookie, Criminal Minds Evolution, and Chicago Med.

Bethany also served as Producing Director on two series: Bull and The Originals. She has directed Oscar winners and Emmy contenders Denzel Washington, Hilary Swank, Mariska Hargitay, Angela Bassett, George Clooney, Alfre Woodard, Felicity Huffman, Sally Field, and Robert Downey, Jr., among many others. Her textbook on episodic directing (co-written with Mary Lou Belli,) "Directors Tell the Story," is seen as an authority on the subject and is in use in many university film programs, as well as most of the studio/network diversity education programs.

She has served the Directors Guild of America in numerous ways: as a member of the National Board, co-chair of the Women's Steering Committee and member of the Western Directors Council. She co-created two of the industry's leading diversity director training programs: Warner Bros. (2012) and the DGA's Directors Development Initiative (DDI, 2015.) Teaching rising directors is one of the ways Bethany continues to learn about and love storytelling. Bethany is a wife and mother and lives in Los Angeles.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bethany Rooney