Steve Blackman

Steve Blackman is an award-winning writer, executive producer, director, and founder of Irish Cowboy Productions, where he and his team develop and produce premium television series for Netflix under his multi-year overall deal.

Current productions include the Blackman-created series “The Umbrella Academy,” starring Elliott Page, Tom Hopper and David Castañeda, among others.  The series, which is an adaptation of the same-name comic books from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, has broken records for Netflix in each of its two seasons, with more than 45 million households watching the series in the first four weeks of the initial season, contributing to its ranking as the third most popular Netflix release in 2019, and becoming the longest running #1 Netflix scripted program upon its second season launch in 2020.  The third season of the series will launch in June 2022.

Over the past 20 years, Blackman’s work has spanned a variety of genres that has earned both critical and commercial success, including the acclaimed “Fargo,” which he wrote and co-executive produced, “Altered Carbon,” “Legion,” “Outsiders,” “Private Practice,” and “NYPD Blue.”  He was nominated for an Emmy Award and Producers Guild Award for his work on “Fargo,” for which he also won a Writers Guild Award.

Blackman grew up in Canada and attended law school at the University of Alberta.  After passing the bar he worked briefly as a divorce lawyer, but soon grew disillusioned and pivoted to writing, selling his first TV show called “The Associates” at the Banff Television Festival in 1999.

Blackman is a member of the Writers Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America and Television Academy. He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children and is dedicated to causes that bring attention to children on the spectrum.