--- name: "Chris Brancato" canonical: "https://film.one/person/chris-brancato" fi1m_id: "chris-brancato" imdb_id: "nm0104333" tmdb_id: 64506 wikidata_id: "Q2964663" roles: ["Writer","Producer"] born: "24 July 1962" reviewed_on_fi1m: 5 average_fi1m_score: 79 average_as: "writer" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-23T13:19:20.195020+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Chris Brancato ## Identity Chris Brancato - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/chris-brancato - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** chris-brancato - **IMDb ID:** nm0104333 - **TMDB ID:** 64506 - **Wikidata ID:** Q2964663 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Brancato, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2964663, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0104333/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/64506 Writer and producer. Born 24 July 1962 in Hollywood. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Producer - **Born:** 24 July 1962, Hollywood - **Active:** 1987–2015 - **Also known as:** Christopher Jay Brancato - **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 4 writing, 1 producing - **Frequently works with:** [Andrew Black](https://film.one/person/andrew-black.md), [Bethany Rooney](https://film.one/person/bethany-rooney.md), [Chip Johannessen](https://film.one/person/chip-johannessen.md), [Daniel Sackheim](https://film.one/person/daniel-sackheim.md), [David Matthews](https://film.one/person/david-matthews.md), [David Semel](https://film.one/person/david-semel.md), [Gillian Anderson](https://film.one/person/gillian-anderson.md), [Guillermo Navarro](https://film.one/person/guillermo-navarro.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 79, as writer, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1980s 72 (1), 1990s 79 (2), 2010s 78 (2) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 80 to 72 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Genres:** Crime 3, Drama 3, Mystery 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1 - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Brancato, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2964663, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0104333/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/64506 ## Streaming the US now - **Netflix:** [*Hannibal*](https://film.one/tv/hannibal-2013.md) (81), [*Narcos*](https://film.one/tv/narcos.md) (76) - **Disney+:** [*The X-Files*](https://film.one/tv/the-x-files.md) (84) - **Paramount+:** [*Beverly Hills, 90210*](https://film.one/tv/beverly-hills-90210.md) (74) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Chris Brancato > Chris Brancato makes crime series out of the historical record, cutting real newsreel into invented scenes, and at his best the two lend each other weight. He builds large, well-researched stories and does not yet trust the audience to follow them without a guide. Every few minutes in *Narcos* (2015) the drama stops and the news comes on. A face Wagner Moura has just invented is followed by the actual man on the actual footage, and for a second the invented one looks smaller, which is the point. This is Chris Brancato's method: take the record, dramatise the gaps, then hold the two up against each other so the viewer knows what is real. It is a good method. It also comes with a narrator, and the narrator is the problem. Brancato had been writing television for more than twenty years before *Narcos*. He started on *Beverly Hills, 90210* in 1992, wrote an episode of *The X-Files* in 1993, created the science fiction series *First Wave* in 1998 and wrote the films *Hoodlum* (1997) and *Species II* (1998). There were runs on *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* and *Criminal Intent*, and a stint as writer and executive producer on *Hannibal* (2013). We rate *The X-Files* and *Hannibal* highly, but they are other people's shows, and neither review has cause to mention him. In those credits he is a working writer, not an author. *Hoodlum*, a period crime film, is the one that points forward. The turn came with *Narcos*, which he created with Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro as three runs of ten episodes, beginning in Medellín at the end of the 1970s. The research is thorough and it shows in the right way: the series treats Escobar as history rather than legend, and Moura's soft-voiced performance is reason enough to watch. The newsreel got at us more than we expected; the footage keeps reminding us that these people existed, and the acting has to earn its place beside them. Then the American narration arrives to explain what the pictures have just shown, and by the third season the series has changed its subject and is running on habit. Brancato and his partners went on to *Narcos: Mexico* (2018); he then created *Godfather of Harlem* (2019), which sets organised crime against the civil rights movement, and *Hotel Cocaine* (2024). We have not reviewed those and will not judge them here. Brancato is candid about what he is doing. "Research only goes so far and we’re not writing documentaries, we’re writing dramas," he has said, and that is fair; nobody wants a footnoted Escobar. The trouble is not that he invents. It is that having done the research and cut in the record, he does not believe we have understood it, and sends a voice to make sure. It may be the habit of a long career in network television. He is developing another period crime series, *The Westies*. On the evidence of *Narcos*, he knows how to find the story and how to stage it beside the truth. What we would like him to find next is the confidence to turn the narrator off. ## Biography Chris Brancato is an American television and film writer and producer. He grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, graduated from Teaneck High School in 1980 and from Brown University. He began his career as a writer and story editor on *Beverly Hills, 90210* in 1992. Brancato co-wrote the *The X-Files* episode 'Eve', which aired in 1993. He created the series *First Wave* (1998–2001) and wrote the films *Hoodlum* (1997) and *Species II* (1998). Later credits include writing for *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*, *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* and *Hannibal*, and co-creating *Narcos* (2015) and *Narcos: Mexico*. He has also created and written *Godfather of Harlem* (2019–) and *Hotel Cocaine* (2024). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (5) ### Wrote (4) — the average rests on these - *Narcos* (2015), Fi1m 76, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/narcos.md) - *Hannibal* (2013), Fi1m 81, Teleplay, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/hannibal-2013.md) - *The X-Files* (1993), Fi1m 84, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-x-files.md) - *Beverly Hills, 90210* (1990), Fi1m 74, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/beverly-hills-90210.md) ### Produced (1) - *Ishtar* (1987), Fi1m 72, Producer's Assistant — [page](https://film.one/film/ishtar.md) ## Complete filmography (23) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Westies* (2026), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator - *Hotel Cocaine* (2024), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator - *By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem* (2020), series, Executive Producer - *Godfather of Harlem* (2019), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator - *Narcos: Mexico* (2018), series, Creator - *Narcos* (2015), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/tv/narcos.md) - *Hannibal* (2013), series, Writer, Teleplay, Executive Producer — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/tv/hannibal-2013.md) - *Terra Nova* (2011), series, Consulting Producer - *North Shore* (2004), series, Producer - *Tru Calling* (2003), series, Teleplay, Story, Consulting Producer, Executive Producer - *Miracles* (2003), series, Director - *Boomtown* (2002), series, Writer - *Stealing Harvard* (2002), Executive Producer - *Law & Order: Criminal Intent* (2001), series, Writer, Executive Producer - *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* (1999), series, Writer - *First Wave* (1998), series, Writer, Creator - *Species II* (1998), Writer - *Hoodlum* (1997), Screenplay, Co-Producer - *The Outer Limits* (1995), series, Writer, Director - *The X-Files* (1993), series, Writer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-x-files.md) - *Beverly Hills, 90210* (1990), series, Writer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/beverly-hills-90210.md) - *Ishtar* (1987), Producer's Assistant — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/ishtar.md) - *Drift*, series, Producer --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/chris-brancato