Early career

Callender started in the entertainment industry as a member of Britain's National Youth Theatre and began his production career in 1974 at the Royal Court Theatre in London as stage manager working with directors such as Mike Leigh, David Hare and Sam Shepard.^[4] Later he joined Granada Television as a graduate trainee where he worked on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof the Granada co-production with NBC starring Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner and Laurence Olivier.

Primetime Television

In 1978 Callender founded Primetime Television where he quickly established himself as one of the UK's leading television and film producers.^[3] At Primetime he pioneered the pre-selling and co-producing of UK drama with foreign broadcasters. When the UK's fourth network Channel Four was created, Primetime was the first independent production company to be commissioned by the new channel with the television adaptation of the RSC's groundbreaking nine-hour stage play The Life And Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. It was Callender's first credit as a producer and he went on to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries in a category that included other nominees The Winds of War and The Thorn Birds.^[5]

Other Primetime productions included D.H.Lawrence's The Captain’s Doll starring Jeremy Irons for the BBC and ARD Germany, Separate Tables starring Alan Bates and Julie Christie directed by John Schlesinger.^[6]

The Callender Company

He later created The Callender Company and during this time, with productions like Peter Greenway's The Belly of an Architect which was the official British entry to the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, John Schlesinger's Madame Sousatzka starring Shirley MacLaine; The Bretts a 13-hour mini-series for Masterpiece Theatre, Prisoner of Honour starring Richard Dreyfuss and Mr. Halpern And Mr. Johnson starring Laurence Olivier and Jackie Gleeson, Callender was in the forefront of bringing together talent from the UK and the U.S., which has gone on to become one of the hallmarks of his career.^[6]

During this time Callender also created and produced the British cult hit The Last Resort which changed the face of late night television in the UK and launched the career of British TV personality Jonathan Ross.^[7]

HBO

In 1987, Callender moved to the U.S. to become executive producer of HBO's newly formed East Coast production unit.^[8] HBO Showcase produced 27 films receiving widespread critical acclaim and earning HBO its first Emmy Award for drama. In 1996 Callender and HBO CEO Jeffrey Bewkes created the film division HBO NYC. Shortly thereafter he was appointed president of HBO Films, based in LA, which rapidly developed a reputation for consistently producing an award-winning slate of sophisticated and provocative television and feature films.

During his tenure Callender oversaw the production of over 115 award-winning movies and mini-series, among them:^[9]

• John Adams – the Tom Hanks produced, and Tom Hooper directed mini-series based on David McCullough's best-selling historical biography starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, which won 13 Emmy awards and 4 Golden Globes, and still holds the record for the most wins for a programme in the history of the Emmy awards;^[10]
• Empire Falls – Fred Schepisi's star studded adaptation of Richard Russo's Pulitzer prize-winning novel starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in their final roles together, along with Ed Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Wright Penn.^[11]
• Recount – Jay Roach's Emmy and Golden Globe winning recreation of the controversial events surrounding the Florida recount that decided the outcome of the 2000 election written by Danny Strong;^[12]
• Angels in America – Mike Nichol's acclaimed adaptation of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning play, starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson, which received 11 Emmy and 5 Golden Globe awards and which IndieWire recently anointed the best mini-series of the last century.^[13]

Callender was also responsible for HBO's theatrical films such as the breakout indie hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Gus Van Sant's provocative movie Elephant about a Columbine like high-school shooting which won him the Best Director Award as well as the coveted Palm d’Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.^[14]

Under Callender's stewardship, HBO Films received:

• 132 Emmy Awards (449 Nominations);
• The Emmy for Outstanding Movie or Mini-series 11 out of 14 years;
• 39 Golden Globe Awards (116 Nominations);
• The Golden Globe for Best Movie or Mini-Series for 8 years in a row;
• 11 Peabody Awards;
• 13 Humanitas Awards;
• 5 Academy Awards;
• Top prizes at the Sundance Film Festival 4 years in a row;
• The Palm D’Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

Picturehouse

Callender was also the driving force behind HBO's joint venture with New Line Cinema – the distribution company Picturehouse^[15] whose slate included Robert Altman's highly acclaimed Prairie Home Companion, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, Run Fatboy Run, Rocket Science, Last Days, Mary Harron's The Notorious Bettie Page, JA Bayona's The Orphanage, Olivier Dahan's La Vie en Rose for which Marion Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress,^[16] and Guillermo del Toro's Pan’s Labyrinth that won three Oscars at the 2006 Academy Awards.^[17]

Playground

In 2009, Callender left HBO Films and moved to New York to produce theatre. He founded Playground in 2012.^[18]

Primetime Television

The Callender Company

HBO

Television Films

Television Miniseries

Feature Films

Playground

Television

Theater