Philip Segal

Philip Segal
Born	1962 (age 61–62) Essex, England
Occupation	Television producer

Philip David Segal (born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England in 1962) is a television producer. He emigrated to the United States "at the age of fifteen or sixteen", where he gained a degree in Telecommunications from San Diego State University. After graduating he became involved in the US television industry, first as a casting assistant and then as a literary agent, working at Fenton Feinberg Casting and the ICM TV Literary Department training program.

In 1985, he became a Director of Drama Development at Columbia Pictures, after which he moved over to ABC Television as a programming executive, becoming involved in such programmes as Twin Peaks, Thirtysomething and China Beach.

In 1991, he joined Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, where he quickly became Vice President of Amblin Television, overseeing the production of seaQuest DSV, Earth 2 and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

It was while he was at Amblin that he first gained control over the creation of a new series of Doctor Who, working in conjunction with fellow English expatriate Peter Wagg (Producer of Max Headroom) to create the early drafts of what eventually became the Doctor Who television movie in 1996. It had long been his dream to produce his own version of the long-running series. While still wishing to juggle the needs of the various parties, his love of the programme still informed such decisions as the casting of a British actor as the Doctor, Liverpudlian actor Paul McGann. It was also ultimately his decision to bring back Sylvester McCoy as the seventh incarnation.

In 2000, Segal co-wrote the book Doctor Who: Regeneration with Gary Russell (HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-710591-6), the making-of book of the 1996 Doctor Who television movie.

Segal won the best director of a short film award from the NY International Film & Video Festival in 2000 for his short story The Other Side of Monday. Other directing credits include: Multiple episodes of Mutant X and Andromeda for the Tribune Action Hours, and the feature film Hobbs End which he also co-wrote with Eric Truheart. In 2000 he became senior VP for scripted programming and development at Tribune Entertainment, overseeing Andromeda, Beastmaster and other shows.

After a brief stint at Bunim-Murray Productions as Executive Vice-President, Segal joined Original Productions, a FremantleMedia company, serving as its Executive Producer since 2006. He has been Chief Executive Officer of Original since November 2012, having previously served as President, His most recent credits include Ice Road Truckers and Ax Men for The History Channel, The Colony, Pitchmen, Swords: Life on the Line for Discovery Channel, 1000 Ways to Die for Spike, Black Gold for Tru TV, Wildlife Warriors and Cut in Half for National Geographic Channel, and Storage Wars for A&E.

External links

• Philip Segal at the Internet Movie Database