Chris Donahue

Chris Donahue (born John Christopher Donahue) is an American film and television producer. He was born in Dallas, Texas, attended Jesuit College Preparatory, and currently resides in Los Angeles. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the Producers Guild of America. He is a trustee for the Humanitas Prize and holds graduate degrees from the American Film Institute and the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, California.

Donahue received two consecutive-year New Orleans Press Club Awards, for the documentaries Russia: A Prison of Nations and Nicaragua: A Land Divided. Through PBS affiliate work he was selected as a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Fellow at WGBH in Boston. For Paulist Pictures, he worked as Director of Development and co-produced Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story (1996), a feature film starring Moira Kelly and Martin Sheen. In 1998 he received an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film (shared with director Chris Tashima) for producing Visas and Virtue, a narrative depiction of Holocaust rescuer Chiune Sugihara. He also co-founded Cedar Grove Productions with Tashima and playwright Tim Toyama to produce the short film. He produced the 2000 feature, Straight Right and won an Emmy Award for the documentary, Be Good, Smile Pretty (2003), broadcast on the PBS series, Independent Lens. From 2000 to 2006, Donahue served as Executive Director for the Humanitas Prize, an annual writer's award that celebrates films and television shows that not only entertain, but also enrich the viewing public. He served as EVP at the Shephard/Robin Company, creators of the TNT television drama, The Closer and FX's Nip/Tuck. He served as producer on the Lifetime Television series, State of Mind starring Lili Taylor as well as the TNT drama, Trust Me.