---
name: "Daniel Minahan"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/daniel-minahan"
fi1m_id: "daniel-minahan"
imdb_id: "nm0590889"
tmdb_id: 88743
wikidata_id: "Q3701680"
roles: ["Director","Producer"]
born: "30 November 1962"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 10
average_fi1m_score: 78
average_as: "director"
average_over: 10
updated: "2026-10-02T21:46:55.873636+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."
---

# Daniel Minahan

## Identity

Daniel Minahan

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/daniel-minahan
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** daniel-minahan
- **IMDb ID:** nm0590889
- **TMDB ID:** 88743
- **Wikidata ID:** Q3701680
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Minahan, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3701680, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0590889/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/88743

Director and producer. Born 30 November 1962 in Danbury, Connecticut, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer
- **Born:** 30 November 1962, Danbury, Connecticut, USA
- **Active:** 1996–present
- **Also known as:** Dan Minahan
- **Frequently works with:** [Dan Attias](https://film.one/person/dan-attias.md), [Adam Davidson](https://film.one/person/adam-davidson.md), [Alan Taylor](https://film.one/person/alan-taylor.md), [Jeremy Podeswa](https://film.one/person/jeremy-podeswa.md), [Lesli Linka Glatter](https://film.one/person/lesli-linka-glatter.md), [David Petrarca](https://film.one/person/david-petrarca.md), [Mary Harron](https://film.one/person/mary-harron.md), [Matt Shakman](https://film.one/person/matt-shakman.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as director, over 10 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 80 (6), 2010s 79 (3), 2020s 68 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 78 to 76 across 10 titles
- **Score spread:** 4 at 80+, 6 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 10, Crime 3, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 2, Action & Adventure 1, Mystery 1, War & Politics 1
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Minahan, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3701680, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0590889/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/88743

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*Deadwood*](https://film.one/tv/deadwood.md) (91), [*Six Feet Under*](https://film.one/tv/six-feet-under.md) (86), [*Game of Thrones*](https://film.one/tv/game-of-thrones.md) (82), [*Big Love*](https://film.one/tv/big-love.md) (79)
- **Disney+:** [*American Crime Story*](https://film.one/tv/american-crime-story.md) (78), [*Homeland*](https://film.one/tv/homeland.md) (78), [*True Blood*](https://film.one/tv/true-blood.md) (71), [*Grey's Anatomy*](https://film.one/tv/greys-anatomy.md) (68)
- **Paramount+:** [*The Good Wife*](https://film.one/tv/the-good-wife.md) (84)
- **Hulu:** [*Fellow Travelers*](https://film.one/tv/fellow-travelers.md) (68)

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

## Fi1m on Daniel Minahan

> Daniel Minahan is the director television calls when a series has to look like one long piece: *Six Feet Under*, *Deadwood* and *Game of Thrones* all carry his hand without showing it. His own films are rarer, stranger and worth watching.

Watch an episode of *Deadwood* without checking who directed it and you will not be able to tell. That is the job, and Daniel Minahan is unusually good at it. Across seven series we have reviewed, from *Six Feet Under* (2001) through *Deadwood* (2004), *Grey's Anatomy* (2005), *Big Love* (2006), *True Blood* (2008), *The Good Wife* (2009) and *Game of Thrones* (2011), our notices praise the writing and the casts and do not mention him once. We mean that as a compliment. A television director who gets noticed has usually broken something.

He came in from the side. He co-wrote and did second-unit work on *I Shot Andy Warhol* (1996), then wrote and directed *Series 7: The Contenders* (2001), a mock reality programme in which the contestants kill each other, which found a cult and remains the one place his own voice is unmistakable. Then television took him and kept him: *Six Feet Under* from 2003, *Deadwood* from 2004 through all three seasons and the 2019 film, five episodes of *Game of Thrones* across its first and third seasons, *Homeland*, *The Good Wife*. Four jobs with David Milch, three with Ryan Murphy. It is a career built on being trusted with other people's shows.

He has said of *Six Feet Under* that you could turn it on at any point and know at once what you were watching. That is the whole of his method: match the palette, match the lenses, block the scene the way the last director blocked it, and let the writing do the work. We found the Fishers exhausting company and kept coming back to them anyway, and part of what made that possible was a house that looked and behaved the same way every week. The show never made us relearn it. On *Deadwood* we sometimes wished somebody would interrupt McShane; we never wished the camera were somewhere else.

The recent work is where he has stepped forward. *Halston* (2021) is all five episodes his. He directed the first two of *Fellow Travelers* (2023), which runs from the McCarthy hearings to the AIDS years and which he also produced, and then the feature *On Swift Horses* (2024), about desire and its concealment in 1950s America. These are stories of queer lives in periods that did not allow them, and he has said he wanted no distance between what the characters felt and what we watched. We have not reviewed the three and will not judge them at length here. We will note that the complaint following *On Swift Horses*, that it is earnest and too tidy about repression, is the one you would expect of a man who spent twenty years learning not to show his hand. Asked to show it, he may need a little longer.

## Biography

Daniel Minahan is an American television and film director. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan in 1987.

Minahan has directed multiple episodes of *Six Feet Under* (2001–2005) and *Deadwood* (2004–2006), as well as episodes of *Game of Thrones*, *Grey's Anatomy*, *House of Cards*, *Homeland*, *True Blood*, *Ratched* and *American Crime Story*. He wrote and directed the feature film *Series 7: The Contenders* (2001) and co-wrote the screenplay for *I Shot Andy Warhol* (1996). He directed the television film *Deadwood: The Movie* (2019) and the feature *On Swift Horses* (2025).

Minahan has received Emmy recognition as an executive producer on *The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, rottentomatoes.com.*

## On Fi1m (10)

- *Fellow Travelers* (2023), Fi1m 68, Executive Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/fellow-travelers.md)
- *American Crime Story* (2016), Fi1m 78, Director, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/american-crime-story.md)
- *Game of Thrones* (2011), Fi1m 82, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/game-of-thrones.md)
- *Homeland* (2011), Fi1m 78, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/homeland.md)
- *The Good Wife* (2009), Fi1m 84, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-good-wife.md)
- *True Blood* (2008), Fi1m 71, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/true-blood.md)
- *Big Love* (2006), Fi1m 79, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/big-love.md)
- *Grey's Anatomy* (2005), Fi1m 68, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/greys-anatomy.md)
- *Deadwood* (2004), Fi1m 91, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/deadwood.md)
- *Six Feet Under* (2001), Fi1m 86, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/six-feet-under.md)

## Complete filmography (32)

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

- *Memory of a Killer* (2026), series, Director
- *On Swift Horses* (2025), Director, Producer
- *Fellow Travelers* (2023), series, Director, Executive Producer — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/tv/fellow-travelers.md)
- *The Girl from Plainville* (2022), series, Director
- *Halston* (2021), series, Director, Executive Producer
- *Ratched* (2020), series, Director
- *Hollywood* (2020), series, Director
- *Deadwood: The Movie* (2019), Executive Producer, Director
- *American Crime Story* (2016), series, Executive Producer, Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/american-crime-story.md)
- *Marco Polo: One Hundred Eyes* (2015), Executive Producer
- *Marco Polo* (2014), series, Director
- *Ray Donovan* (2013), series, Director
- *House of Cards* (2013), series, Executive Producer, Director
- *The Newsroom* (2012), series, Director
- *Homeland* (2011), series, Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/homeland.md)
- *Game of Thrones* (2011), series, Director — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/game-of-thrones.md)
- *Off the Map* (2011), series, Director
- *The Good Wife* (2009), series, Director — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-good-wife.md)
- *Life on Mars* (2008), series, Director
- *True Blood* (2008), series, Director — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/tv/true-blood.md)
- *Swingtown* (2008), series, Director
- *John from Cincinnati* (2007), series, Director
- *The Black Donnellys* (2007), series, Director
- *Big Love* (2006), series, Director — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/tv/big-love.md)
- *Commander in Chief* (2005), series, Director
- *Grey's Anatomy* (2005), series, Director — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/tv/greys-anatomy.md)
- *Deadwood* (2004), series, Director — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/tv/deadwood.md)
- *The L Word* (2004), series, Director
- *Six Feet Under* (2001), series, Director — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/six-feet-under.md)
- *Series 7* (2001), Director, Writer
- *I Shot Andy Warhol* (1996), Writer
- *How to Survive Without Me*, series, Director

## Gallery

- ![Daniel Minahan, director of 'On Swift Horses', at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival](https://film.one/media/person/61255/gallery-8ffceabb2bee.jpg) Daniel Minahan, director of 'On Swift Horses', at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival — John Sears, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Daniel_Minahan_at_the_2024_Toronto_International_Film_Festival.jpg/1280px-Daniel_Minahan_at_the_2024_Toronto_International_Film_Festival.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Daniel Minahan](https://film.one/media/person/61255/gallery-e42b7ec31b65.jpg) Daniel Minahan — John Sears, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Daniel_Minahan_at_the_2024_Toronto_International_Film_Festival_2.jpg/1280px-Daniel_Minahan_at_the_2024_Toronto_International_Film_Festival_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Daniel Minahan](https://film.one/media/person/61255/gallery-1da5a403d1b7.jpg) Daniel Minahan — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Other awards — 1 won

- Hugo Awards 2012: Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (won), for *Game of Thrones*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© 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/daniel-minahan