---
name: "Clyde Phillips"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/clyde-phillips"
fi1m_id: "clyde-phillips"
imdb_id: "nm0680312"
tmdb_id: 1212409
wikidata_id: "Q5136998"
roles: ["Writer","Producer"]
born: "3 October 1958"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 3
average_fi1m_score: 69
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-10-07T15:06:59.217655+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."
---

# Clyde Phillips

## Identity

Clyde Phillips

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/clyde-phillips
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** clyde-phillips
- **IMDb ID:** nm0680312
- **TMDB ID:** 1212409
- **Wikidata ID:** Q5136998
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Phillips_(writer), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5136998, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0680312/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1212409

Writer and producer. Born 3 October 1958 in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 3 October 1958, Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- **Active:** 2006–present
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 3: 2 writing, 1 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [Marcos Siega](https://film.one/person/marcos-siega.md), [Michael C. Hall](https://film.one/person/michael-c-hall.md), [Scott Buck](https://film.one/person/scott-buck.md), [Scott Reynolds](https://film.one/person/scott-reynolds.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 69, as writer, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 73 (2), 2020s 64 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Phillips_(writer), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5136998, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0680312/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1212409

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*Dexter*](https://film.one/tv/dexter.md) (74)
- **Hulu:** [*Dexter: Resurrection*](https://film.one/tv/dexter-resurrection.md) (64)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Clyde Phillips

> Clyde Phillips writes murderers who talk to us, and the talking is the trick: the voiceover makes Dexter Morgan good company and lets him off too easily. He builds a season as well as anyone, and he keeps building them around the same man.

A man in a kitchen, or on a boat, or at a dinner table of murderers, and a calm, faintly amused voice in our ear telling us what he is thinking. That voice is Clyde Phillips's instrument. He did not invent Dexter Morgan; he joined *Dexter* (2006) after the pilot, rewrote and reshot some of it, and ran the first four series. But the voiceover is where he lives. He has said it was the main reason audiences invited a serial killer into their homes every Sunday night, and he is right. It is also, as we said in our review, why the writing explains Dexter too often and makes liking him too easy. Michael C. Hall's stillness does the hard work; the narration keeps stepping in to tell us it is all right.

He came to it from comedy, which explains a good deal. Phillips created *Parker Lewis Can't Lose* (1990), *Suddenly Susan* (1996) and *Get Real* (1999) before anyone let him near a body, and the *Dexter* he ran was a sitcom with plastic sheeting: a fixed household, a code, a new guest villain each year. Each season was built around one antagonist, and the fourth, in 2009, with its Trinity Killer, is the one everybody still points to. The third is the one they do not. He left after the fourth, ran the last three series of *Nurse Jackie* (2013 to 2015), tried a one-season adaptation of a Danish series with *Feed the Beast* (2016), and then went back to Dexter.

Back three times, so far: *Dexter: New Blood* (2021), the prequel *Dexter: Original Sin* (2024) and *Dexter: Resurrection* (2025). *New Blood* was competent and thin, and its ending was widely disliked, for reasons we will not go into. *Resurrection* is better, and it is better because Phillips admitted at last that the show is a comedy. Dexter at a supper club of worse people, the most reasonable man at the table; Peter Dinklage hosting like a man showing off a wine cellar; Brian Cox frightening for two scenes. We laughed at those dinners, at the etiquette and the small talk, and then felt grubby about it, and we think that was the point, because it is the one place the show has an idea. Everywhere else it is quoting itself, and it knows we will recognise the quotes.

Hall has now played the man across four series and Phillips has written every one of them, with Scott Reynolds beside him for three and Marcos Siega directing on two. It is a real partnership and it is also the whole of his reputation. He builds a season as well as anyone working in television, and he has spent the years since 2006 building them around the same kitchen. We would like to see what he does with a killer he did not inherit.

## Biography

Clyde Phillips is an American television writer and producer. Born on 3 October 1958 in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, he created the series *Parker Lewis Can't Lose* (1990) and *Suddenly Susan* (1996), and served as executive producer on *Get Real* (1999).

Phillips joined *Dexter* (2006) after the pilot as showrunner, executive producer and writer for the first four seasons. He received an Edgar Award nomination for the episode "Crocodile" and the series earned multiple Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Drama Series during his tenure. He later worked as showrunner on *Nurse Jackie* and adapted *Feed the Beast* (2016).

Phillips returned to the *Dexter* franchise as showrunner and writer for *Dexter: New Blood* (2021), *Dexter: Original Sin* (2024) and *Dexter: Resurrection* (2025).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, dexter.fandom.com.*

## On Fi1m (3)

### Wrote (2) — the average rests on these

- *Dexter: Resurrection* (2025), Fi1m 64, Creator, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay, Story — [page](https://film.one/tv/dexter-resurrection.md)
- *Dexter* (2006), Fi1m 74, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/dexter.md)

### Produced (1)

- *Nurse Jackie* (2009), Fi1m 72, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/nurse-jackie.md)

## Complete filmography (19)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Dexter: Resurrection* (2025), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay, Story, Creator — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/tv/dexter-resurrection.md)
- *Dexter: Original Sin* (2024), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Teleplay, Story, Creator
- *Dexter: New Blood* (2021), series, Executive Producer, Story, Teleplay, Creator
- *Feed the Beast* (2016), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator
- *Nurse Jackie* (2009), series, Executive Producer — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/nurse-jackie.md)
- *Dexter* (2006), series, Writer, Executive Producer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/dexter.md)
- *Boomtown* (2002), series, Writer
- *Get Real* (1999), series, Writer, Creator
- *Suddenly Susan* (1996), series, Writer, Creator
- *Parker Lewis Can't Lose* (1990), series, Writer, Creator
- *Police Story* (1988), series, Creator
- *Police Story: Cop Killer* (1988), Executive Producer
- *Houston Knights* (1987), series, Writer
- *Midas Valley* (1985), Executive Producer, Writer
- *Obsessed with a Married Woman* (1985), Executive Producer
- *Not in Front of the Children* (1982), Supervising Producer
- *If Things Were Different* (1980), Producer
- *The Darker Side of Terror* (1979), Associate Producer
- *Bud and Lou* (1978), Producer

## Gallery

- ![Clyde Phillips speaking at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Dexter", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Please attribu](https://film.one/media/person/101800/gallery-8932ec414bea.jpg) Clyde Phillips speaking at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International, for "Dexter", at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Please attribu — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Clyde_Phillips_2013.jpg/1280px-Clyde_Phillips_2013.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Clyde Phillips](https://film.one/media/person/101800/gallery-d21f7ce60a2b.jpg) Clyde Phillips — Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/Clyde_Phillips_at_53rd_Saturn_Awards_2026.jpg/1280px-Clyde_Phillips_at_53rd_Saturn_Awards_2026.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![David Dastmalchian, Scott Reynolds, James Remar, Clyde Phillips, Marcos Siega, and Jack Alcott at the 53rd Saturn Awards (2026)](https://film.one/media/person/101800/gallery-2ff22eb0e6bf.jpg) David Dastmalchian, Scott Reynolds, James Remar, Clyde Phillips, Marcos Siega, and Jack Alcott at the 53rd Saturn Awards (2026) — Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/Dexter_Resurrection_at_53rd_Saturn_Awards_2026.jpg/1280px-Dexter_Resurrection_at_53rd_Saturn_Awards_2026.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![From left: Kristin Dos Santos, Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Clyde Phillips, "Dexter," at Comic-Con (2008)](https://film.one/media/person/101800/gallery-c3f2cb6b9fe1.jpg) From left: Kristin Dos Santos, Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Clyde Phillips, "Dexter," at Comic-Con (2008) — watchwithkristin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Dexter_people.jpg/1280px-Dexter_people.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

---
© 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/clyde-phillips