Showrunners and Head writers

Showrunner is the unofficial title given to the top-level creative decision maker and manager overseeing all episodes of an individual season of a television/episodic series. The showrunner is usually credited as an executive producer, producer and/or writer. 

They are ultimately responsible for the overall tone and creative direction of an entire season, overseeing the work of the various directors and/or department heads who contribute to individual episodes. In some cases they may also be the head writer for that season.

A head writer is the title (sometimes unofficial) given to the top-level writer who oversees the team of writers working on an individual season of a television/episodic series. 

The head writer is usually credited as an executive producer, producer and/or writer. In some cases they may also be the showrunner for that season. 

Showrunners and head writers are very rarely listed in a titles end credit sequence - therefore, listing them is a rare exclusions to our policy of:

"Listing all information on IMDb based on a titles end credit sequence."

Please follow the below guidelines to make sure the information is added correctly:

• Only series or episodes can have the "(showrunner)" and/or "(head writer)" attribute, not standalone titles like movies or TV specials.
• (Showrunner) and (Head Writer) are attributes that distinguish the type of role performed. These attributes should be applied as a supplementary or additional credit to the role that is credited onscreen. Attributes should be entered in the attribute form-field during the data submission.
• You can only add (showrunner) and (head writer) attributes to roles under the producer and writer departments.
• Showrunner credits should only be submitted for episodes that person was a confirmed showrunner for - it's common for showrunners to change throughout a series run.
• You can add showrunner credits for more than one person on an episode, as long as they all were showrunners. In the event an episode or TV series has multiple showrunners, you should list each attribute as (showrunner) and not (co-showrunner).
• Showrunners are not typically credited as such on-screen. Please do not add the attribute as a role with the (uncredited) attribute.
• The concept of a showrunner was only established and adopted in the 1990s, so please provide supporting evidence for titles before the year 2000 in the provide an explanation field.

To do this, use the Edit page button at the bottom of either an episode page or name page to add a new Producer or Writer credit with the attribute "(showrunner)" or "(head writer)" depending on the type of show (detailed in guidelines above).

Instructions on how to add new credits to single or multiple episodes is available on our episodic credit page.

The above images indicate how showrunner credits need to be entered in the contribution form. The "showrunner" attribute should be selected from the "Set attributes ..." option in the Attribute field, and there should be no duplicate credit listings.

For example, Taylor Sheridan should not have both an executive producer credit with the "showrunner" attribute, and another executive producer credit without the "showrunner" attribute.