Right out of the box Lucia Aniello experienced what riding the right horse at the Emmys was like. She became one of the few women to win both Comedy Directing and Writing Emmys, for the first season of Hacks. And the Emmy love doesn’t stop there. After a year off when the Max series wasn’t eligible, it has roared back with a vengeance, receiving a huge 17 nominations including three for Aniello as director and co-writer of the third-season finale, “Bulletproof.” She also got her third nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series, which she shares with her co-creators, writers and executive producers Jen Statsky as well as Paul W. Downs (to whom she also happens to be married).
Aniello credits much of her success to comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade, where she forged key connections that led to working on Broad City with Ilana Grazer and partnership with Downs (who played Trey on the show), both personally and professionally. She helming not just that show but several digital shorts, as well as other key directing jobs on Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens, The Baby-Sitters Club (for which she won a Daytime Emmy) and even to her own feature film, 2017’s Rough Night for Sony Pictures, becoming the first woman in 20 years to direct an R-Rated comedy.
Now with Emmy, WGA, DGA, AFI, Golden Globe and Peabody recognition, she is at the top of her game. Aniello joins me for this latest edition of my Deadline video series Behind the Lens to talk about all of it and also gives us a preview of where Hacks is headed. They are hard at work on it in the writers room before production begins on the fourth season, and in advance of how they plan to wrap the series up after its fifth season, a plan the creators always have had.
To watch our conversation and to go “behind the lens” with Lucia Aniello, click on the link above.
Join me for more episodes of Behind the Lens this Emmy season.