Michael Fields

Michael Fields is a journeyman director whose career in the industry spans more than three decades. Fields began working in the business as a production assistant and editor on several James Ivory (of Merchant Ivory fame) productions in the late 1970s and early '80s, including as the director's assistant for the 1984 romance "The Bostonians," with Christopher Reeve and Vanessa Redgrave, who received an Oscar nomination for her performance. In 1985, Fields made his directorial debut, and earned his only writing credit, with the TV Western "Noon Wine," starring Fred Ward and Stellan Skarsgård. In the latter half of the 1980s, Fields devoted himself to his big screen debut, the modest 1990 thriller "Bright Angel," in which Fields was able to cast an impressive list of actors, either known stars or soon-to-be-known stars, including Lili Taylor, Bill Pullman, and Benjamin Bratt, among others. By the mid-1990s, Fields finally supplanted himself into the most consistent phase of his career, as a hired TV director. His projects have ranged from big-name crime dramas including "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "Law & Order" (the Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit incarnations), to a whole slew of youth-based serial dramas, from "Dawson's Creek" in 1998 to "Gossip Girl" in 2008. One of Fields' most substantial gigs has been on the female-based crime drama "Veronica Mars," starring a rising Kristen Bell, from 2004 to 2007.