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Kirk Ellis won two Emmys, a WGA Award, a Peabody and the Humanitas Prize for his work as writer and co-executive producer on the HBO miniseries “John Adams.” The miniseries won 13 Emmys in total, as well as four Golden Globe awards. Previously, Ellis received an Emmy nomination and won the WGA Award and Humanitas Prize for the ABC miniseries “Anne Frank: The Whole Story,” which he wrote and co-produced. Series on which he has served as writer and producer have garnered more than 50 Emmy nominations.
Most recently, Ellis wrote and executive produced the Apple TV+ limited series event "Franklin," starring Michael Douglas, which chronicles Benjamin Franklin’s efforts to negotiate a treaty with France at the height of the American Revolution. Based on the book “A Great Improvisation” by Stacy Schiff, the series also features Noah Jupe, Ludivine Sagnier, Daniel Mays, Thibault de Montalembert, Jeanne Balibar, Assaad Bouab and Eddie Marsan.
Since 2019, Ellis has written or co-written the National Memorial Day Concert for PBS, and received a Writers Guild nomination for his work on the 2022 show. His first nonfiction book, Ride Lonesome, was published in Spring 2023 by the University of New Mexico Press. A second book, They Kill People: ‘Bonnie and Clyde, a Hollywood Revolution, and America's Obsession with Guns and Outlaws, is due out from High Road Press/Simon & Schuster in Spring 2026.
Graduating from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema and Television, Ellis began his professional career as a film critic for The Hollywood Reporter, and at age 24 served as the magazine's international editor. In 1992 he formed Shadow Catcher Productions, under which Ellis develops his own indie features and documentaries. Ellis made his feature film debut writing and co-producing “The Grass Harp,” based on the coming-of-age novel by Truman Capote.
A former co-governor of the writers' branch of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Ellis served four years as chairman of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Arts Commission and is currently a trustee for the Museum of New Mexico Foundation. The former president of Western Writers of America, he received both the WWA Spur Award and the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for his episode of the TNT/DreamWorks miniseries, “Into the West.”
Ellis lives in Santa Fe with his wife, Sheila, and their menagerie of cats.
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