On May 29, Director Liz Patrick discussed what it takes to direct Saturday Night Live and her career highlights from years of directing talk and variety shows during a conversation moderated by Director Lily Olszewski.
During the conversation she recalled taking the helm of the iconic show.
“There was a nice transition period. Director Don Roy King was retiring. They came up with a really good idea of having me shadow two episodes, just to see all the chaos and how it works. You could talk about it for hours and days, but until you see it in action, it’s another thing. It’s breaking down each sketch one by one, it can feel overwhelming. I got to watch him for two episodes fully, and then I slowly started to jump in. By November, I was doing the show completely, but I had Don there as a consultant.”
In addition to her work on Saturday Night Live, Patrick’s directorial credits include episodes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Ellen’s Game of Games, Heads Up!, Repeat After Me, Wolf Watch, Guy Court, Wild ‘N Out, The Real World, Total Request Live; and specials such as Michael Buble’s Christmas in the City, Wanda Sykes: What Happened... Ms. Sykes?, MTV Fandom Awards, MTV New Year’s Bash 2011, The 2010 VH1 Do Something Awards, New Now Next Awards, Tila Tequila’s New Year’s Eve Masquerade 2008.
She is a two-time winner of the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports - Regularly Scheduled Programming for her 2022 Saturday Night Live episode “Jack Harlow” and her 2023 Saturday Night Live episode “Pedro Pascal/Coldplay” (shared with Michael Mancini). Patrick has been a DGA member since 2006.
See video from this event in the gallery below.
About the Committee:
Originally a sub-committee of the Eastern Directors Council, in 2020 the Focus on Women Committee (FOWC) was designated an official and permanent committee of the DGA National Board for women members residing in the Eastern Region. The Committee would like to remind members that while their events are designed with a special focus on women Directors, all DGA members are welcome to attend.