Joe Chappelle

Producer Joe Chappelle left a budding career as an ad man in the 1990s to become a journeyman director of horror sequels for franchises initiated by the likes of genre veterans John Carpenter and Clive Barker. He transitioned from feature films to television and continued to work on horror and fantasy projects with 2001-2002's comic-book adaptation "Witchblade" and the Forest Whitaker-hosted reboot of the speculative anthology series "The Twilight Zone." In 2003, Chappelle took a giant step back into reality when he signed on as a producer for "CSI: Miami," the tropical spin-off of Emmy award-winner Anthony E. Zuiker's successful forensics-based procedural. Chappelle remained in a contemporary urban milieu as co-executive producer of 2002-2008's "The Wire," a collaboration with beat reporter-turned showrunner David Simon. The show's intricate examination of life in the city of Baltimore was widely praised for the depth of its characters and for its formal experimentation and emotive cinematography. In the years since the end of its historic five-season run, critics and film scholars have all but ensured its place in the canon as one of the most important dramatic series in the history of television. In 2009, Chappelle found occasion to draw from his disparate interests in gritty realism and the supernatural as producer of "Fringe," the FBI-centered, paranormal action series from fellow super-producer J.J. Abrams.