John Marcum Wells (born May 28, 1956) is an American producer, writer, and director. He is best known for his role as showrunner and executive producer of the television series ER, Third Watch, The West Wing, Southland, Shameless, Animal Kingdom, The Pitt, and American Woman, as well as the miniseries Maid and the 2024 series Rescue: HI-Surf. He was the developer of the series Shameless, which ran for 11 seasons, from 2011 to 2021, on Showtime. His company, John Wells Productions, is currently based at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California. He served twice as president of the Writers Guild of America, West (1999–2001 and 2009–2011), and currently serves on the board of governors of the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF).
Contents
Early life
Wells was born in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of Marjorie Elizabeth (née Risberg) and Llewellyn Wallace Wells, Jr., an Episcopalian minister. He has English, Irish, Scottish, Swedish, and Norwegian ancestry. Wells graduated from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in 1979. (A studio theatre at Carnegie Mellon University now bears his name.) While a student at CMU, he became one of the earliest actors to work at City Theatre, a prominent fixture of Pittsburgh theatre.
Career
Television
In 1986, Wells’s company, John Wells Productions (originally John Wells & Friends) began a longstanding relationship with Warner Bros., one of the most successful television producers in the world.
He was a producer on the film Nice Girls Don't Explode (1987), joined the writing staff of the short-lived CBS drama series Shell Game in 1987, and began writing for television with an episode of CBS Summer Playhouse (entitled "Roughhouse") in 1988.
Also in 1988, he was hired as a producer for the second season of the ABC drama series China Beach. The show was created by John Sacret Young and William Broyles, Jr. and focused on combat medics in the Vietnam War. Wells wrote five episodes for the show’s second season and both episodes of the two-part season finale, "The World".
In 1989, Wells was promoted to supervising producer of the third season of China Beach and wrote three of that season’s episodes. In 1990, he returned as a co-executive producer of the show’s fourth (and final) season, and was involved in writing 11 of that season’s episodes, including the series finale.
In his time working on China Beach, Wells worked frequently with producer/director Mimi Leder, and she directed six of the episodes he wrote. China Beach also marked the start of Wells's working relationship with casting director John Frank Levey, editors Randy Jon Morgan and Jacque Toberen and directors Rod Holcomb and Fred Gerber.
In 1992, Wells co-wrote the teleplay of The Nightman, helping to adapt it into a television film from the radio drama by Lucille Fletcher. It tells the story of a young man moving into a hotel that is run by a mother and daughter. Wells was also the film’s co-executive producer; it was directed by Charles Haid.
That same year, Wells wrote and executive-produced another television film: Angel Street, a project that reunited him with several members of the China Beach team, including director Rod Holcomb, editor Jacque Toberen, and casting director John Frank Levey. That telefilm was followed by a series, on which Wells continued as an executive producer. He also wrote the screenplay for Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story; that project was produced in 1996 and starred Martin Sheen and Moira Kelly.
Film
Wells made his directorial debut with the film drama The Company Men, starring Ben Affleck. The film was scheduled for release in the fall of 2010 but premiered earlier at the Sundance film festival. After the Sundance screening, The Hollywood Reporter said, "Wells has made, for his first film, a tough movie and certainly not a commercial one. This displays the kind of guts he always brought to his television work, which one can only hope continues on in other future film projects."
His second film, August: Osage County (2013), which he directed from a script by Tracy Letts, stars Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, and Ewan McGregor. The Weinstein Company released the film in December 2013. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards® including Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Streep) and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Roberts).
He next produced Love and Mercy the critically acclaimed biopic about the Beach Boys, starring Paul Dano, John Cusack, Paul Giamatti and Elizabeth Banks. The film originally premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2014.
Wells directed the cooking drama film Burnt, previously titled Chef and Adam Jones, in which Bradley Cooper starred as a Paris chef named Adam Jones. Sienna Miller co-starred, along with Omar Sy, Emma Thompson, Daniel Brühl, Alicia Vikander, and Lily James.
Filmography
Television
The numbers in directing and writing credits refer to the number of episodes.
Notes
Awards and nominations
John Wells Productions won a Peabody Award in 1999 and 2000 for The West Wing and again in 2001 for Third Watch's '"In Their Own Words," which told the stories of real-life responders to the 9/11 attack on New York City.
John Wells has been nominated for twenty-eight Emmy Awards and received eight wins including Outstanding Drama Series (1996 for ER, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 for The West Wing, and 2025 and 2026 for The Pitt) and Outstanding Special Class Program in 2002 for The West Wing Documentary Special.
Wells has been nominated for six Producers Guild Awards and won three awards for his work on The West Wing and ER. He was honored with the Vision Award in 2000 as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award in Television in 2005.
In addition, Wells has been nominated for seven Writers Guild Awards and won the Directors Guild Diversity Award in 1997.
On May 18, 2014, Wells received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University, where he graduated from in 1979.
