Film & Television vocabulary · Television Formats and Series
Showrunner
Meaning in film & television, with examples
/ˈʃəʊrʌnə/nounCommon term
In film & television, showrunner means: The person in overall creative and day-to-day charge of a TV series, usually its head writer and an executive producer at the same time.
In Turkish: showrunner, dizinin yaratıcı lideri, baş yapımcı
How it is used
Mostly an American industry word, now common worldwide. The showrunner runs the writers' room, hires directors, approves edits and talks to the network. On many series, the person who created the show is also the showrunner.
Example sentences
The showrunner rewrote the finale the night before the shoot.
After two seasons, a new showrunner took over the series.
Common collocations
series showrunner
co-showrunner
showrunner and creator
writers' room
Related terms
screenwriterA person who writes screenplays for films or scripts for TV series, either original stories or adaptations of books and other works.
producerThe person who makes a film or TV project happen: finding the money, hiring key people, managing the budget and schedule and seeing the project through to release.
seriesA TV or streaming programme made of many episodes that share the same characters, subject or story.
pilotThe first episode of a TV series, made to show the idea to a channel or platform and convince it to order the full series.
