---
name: "Dean Holland"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/dean-holland"
fi1m_id: "dean-holland"
imdb_id: "nm0390657"
tmdb_id: 1290146
wikidata_id: "Q5246221"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "1 January 1901"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 5
average_fi1m_score: 79
average_as: "director"
average_over: 5
updated: "2026-09-30T20:39:26.344493+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."
---

# Dean Holland

## Identity

Dean Holland

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/dean-holland
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** dean-holland
- **IMDb ID:** nm0390657
- **TMDB ID:** 1290146
- **Wikidata ID:** Q5246221
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Holland, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5246221, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390657/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1290146

Director. Born 1 January 1901.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 1 January 1901
- **Active:** 2005–present
- **Frequently works with:** [Ken Whittingham](https://film.one/person/ken-whittingham.md), [Claire Scanlon](https://film.one/person/claire-scanlon.md), [Michael Schur](https://film.one/person/michael-schur.md), [Tristram Shapeero](https://film.one/person/tristram-shapeero.md), [Tucker Gates](https://film.one/person/tucker-gates.md), [Beth McCarthy-Miller](https://film.one/person/beth-mccarthy-miller.md), [Craig Zisk](https://film.one/person/craig-zisk.md), [Dave King](https://film.one/person/dave-king-1298804.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 79, as director, over 5 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 80 (2), 2010s 81 (2), 2020s 74 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 79 to 71 across 5 titles
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Comedy 5, Crime 1, Drama 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Holland, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5246221, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390657/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1290146

## Streaming the US now

- **Peacock:** [*Parks and Recreation*](https://film.one/tv/parks-and-recreation.md) (83), [*The Office*](https://film.one/tv/the-office-2005.md) (77)
- **Netflix:** [*Brooklyn Nine-Nine*](https://film.one/tv/brooklyn-nine-nine.md) (78), [*Never Have I Ever*](https://film.one/tv/never-have-i-ever-2020.md) (74)
- **Disney+:** [*The Good Place*](https://film.one/tv/the-good-place.md) (84)

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

## Fi1m on Dean Holland

> We value Dean Holland’s patience with ensemble comedy, especially the reactions he helped shape as an editor on *The Office*. His move into directing makes sense: he knows when the person listening matters more than the speaker.

In *The Office* (2005), a remark is often only half the joke. The other half belongs to the colleague who has to sit there and hear it, and editors Dean Holland and David Rogers give that reaction time to register. We laughed, then felt uncomfortable, because Steve Carell’s painful neediness makes the disapproval around him sting. Holland’s contribution is worth noticing precisely because nobody has to explain what those faces mean. The scene can carry on without another line underlining the offence.

He came to directing through editing, including work on *The Office* and *Parks and Recreation* (2009). On the latter he also became a producer and directed more than 20 episodes, building on his familiarity with its tone and pacing. Knowing a programme from the cutting room is a sensible preparation for directing its actors. Further directing work included *Brooklyn Nine-Nine* (2013) and *The Good Place* (2016), within a career frequently associated with Greg Daniels and Michael Schur.

That does not make the effect in *The Office* his alone. Cinematographers Randall Einhorn and Matt Sohn let the camera appear to notice behaviour, and Holland and Rogers make the cuts serve that apparent informality. The result lets us judge the boss alongside his colleagues, without canned laughter deciding when the joke has arrived. It also has limits: the borrowed beginnings and occasional overplaying are real weaknesses, and patient attention to a reaction cannot make an overplayed moment feel natural.

Directing the pilot and further episodes of *Love* (2016) gave Holland a chance to help set a programme’s pace from the start. That is a different responsibility from fitting into an established ensemble, though the same attention to timing ought to be useful. We would look for that before looking for a conspicuous visual signature. Start with *The Office*, and watch the colleagues while the boss is talking.

## Biography

Dean Holland is an American film editor, television director and producer. He edited more than 30 episodes of the comedy series *The Office* (2005) and directed two episodes, and worked extensively on *Parks and Recreation* (2009) as editor, producer and director of multiple episodes.

Holland began his career in the late 1990s editing television documentaries such as *Behind the Music* and the *76th Academy Awards*. He received a Primetime Emmy Award in 2007 for Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series for his work on *The Office*. He has directed episodes of series including *Brooklyn Nine-Nine* (2013), *The Good Place* (2016) and *Never Have I Ever* (2020), and served as producer on shows such as *Loot* (2022) and *Not Dead Yet* (2023).

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

## On Fi1m (5)

- *Never Have I Ever* (2020), Fi1m 74, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/never-have-i-ever-2020.md)
- *The Good Place* (2016), Fi1m 84, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-good-place.md)
- *Brooklyn Nine-Nine* (2013), Fi1m 78, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/brooklyn-nine-nine.md)
- *Parks and Recreation* (2009), Fi1m 83, Director, Executive Producer, Producer, Supervising Producer, Co-Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/parks-and-recreation.md)
- *The Office* (2005), Fi1m 77, Director, Editor — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-office-2005.md)

## Complete filmography (24)

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

- *Big Mistakes* (2026), series, Director, Executive Producer
- *Not Dead Yet* (2023), series, Director
- *Loot* (2022), series, Executive Producer, Director
- *Acapulco* (2021), series, Director
- *Home Economics* (2021), series, Director, Executive Producer
- *A Parks and Recreation Special* (2020), Executive Producer
- *Never Have I Ever* (2020), series, Director — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/never-have-i-ever-2020.md)
- *The Unicorn* (2019), series, Director
- *Single Parents* (2018), series, Director
- *Splitting Up Together* (2018), series, Writer, Director, Executive Producer
- *Ghosted* (2017), series, Director
- *Trial & Error* (2017), series, Director
- *The Good Place* (2016), series, Director — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-good-place.md)
- *Growing Up Fisher* (2014), series, Director
- *Brooklyn Nine-Nine* (2013), series, Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/brooklyn-nine-nine.md)
- *Blue Mountain State* (2010), series, Director
- *Parks and Recreation* (2009), series, Director, Associate Producer, Co-Producer, Producer, Supervising Producer, Executive Producer — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/parks-and-recreation.md)
- *Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control* (2008), Editor
- *Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson* (2005), Editor
- *The Crow: Wicked Prayer* (2005), Editor
- *The Office* (2005), series, Director, Editor — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-office-2005.md)
- *The Hebrew Hammer* (2003), Editor
- *The Country Bears* (2002), Editorial Staff
- *Run Ronnie Run* (2002), as Editor #4 · Editor

---
© 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/dean-holland