Charles Rogers (director)

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Charles Rogers
Born (1987-07-05) July 5, 1987 (age 36)
Alma materNew York University
Occupations
  • Film director
  • screenwriter
  • producer
  • actor
Years active2012–2022

Charles Rogers (born July 5, 1987) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known for his movie Fort Tilden (2014) and the TBS / HBO Max series Search Party which ran from 2016 to 2022. He also served as a writer for the Netflix comedy series, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015), and Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later (2017).

Rogers has earned notoriety and acclaim as one of the major LGBTQ showrunners in Hollywood. He has earned recognition from Forbes 30 Under 30, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety.[1][2][3] In 2017 he was one of Out Magazine 100 most compelling LGBT people in 2017.[4]

Early life and education[edit]

Rogers is a graduate of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts MFA film directing program.

Career[edit]

He was one of the filmmakers behind the multi-director feature film Black Dog, Red Dog, produced by James Franco and Rabbit Bandini Productions, starring Logan Marshall-Green, Chloe Sevigny, and Whoopi Goldberg, which premiered at the 2015 International Film Festival of Guanajuato.[5][6][7] The film was a class project at the NYU graduate film program, taught by Franco, wherein ten students adapted the poetry of Stephen Dobyns.[8]

In 2014 he co-wrote and co-directed Fort Tilden in collaboration with Sarah-Violet Bliss. Starring Bridey Elliott and Clare McNulty, the film premiered at SXSW, where it won the Grand Jury Award and was subsequently acquired by Orion Pictures. Fort Tilden centers on two inept best friends on a disastrous journey to the beach. It was released on August 14, 2015, theatrically and through video on demand.[9][10][11][12] The film received generally positive reviews from major critics.[13][14][15]

Search Party[edit]

Rogers and Violet-Bliss reunited in 2016 for the comedy/mystery TBS television series Search Party, which they co-created along with Michael Showalter. The show stars Alia Shawkat, John Early, John Reynolds, Meredith Hagner and Brandon Micheal Hall as a group of New York hipsters who find themselves involved in a series of mysteries.[16] Search Party received critical acclaim,[17][18] holding a 100% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10.[19] On Metacritic, the first season holds a rating of 81 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[20] The second season premiered on TBS on November 19, 2017, and received positive reviews from television critics. It holds a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes[21] and was called a "biting satire made for the Trump era" by Vanity Fair.[22] Both Violet-Bliss and Rogers have since signed an overall deal with HBO Max.[23]

Other film and TV work[edit]

Along with Jordan Firstman, he co-wrote and co-starred in the short film Men Don't Whisper, which was an official selection at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival[24] as well as the 2018 South by Southwest Film Festival.[25] The film follows a gay couple with masculinity issues who attempt to sleep with women. Produced by JASH, it also stars Fort Tilden and Search Party actors Bridey Elliott and Clare McNulty, and features a guest appearance by Saturday Night Live alum Cheri Oteri.[26]

In addition to his work on Search Party, Rogers has worked as a writer on the first and second seasons of the Netflix series Wet Hot American Summer, as well as for the second season of the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle which won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

Other work[edit]

Rogers, along with comedian and multimedia artist Casey Jane Ellison, co-hosted the Earwolf produced limited series podcast The Problem with Charles and Casey which premiered on March 31, 2019. The podcast featured in-depth interviews with guests, including Louie Anderson, Jessica Williams, Starlee Kine, Jordan Firstman, and Chelsea Peretti, about a problem they are facing in their lives.[27] Rogers has appeared twice as a guest on The George Lucas Talk Show, first during the May the AR Be LI$$ You Arli$$ marathon fundraiser, and later on The George Lucas Holiday Special.

Controversies[edit]

In January 2024, allegations of sexual assault against Rogers were published by TheWrap.[28] According to the allegations, Rogers drugged and sexually assaulted a Search Party production assistant after the two of them left a party together in 2020. The production assistant also alleged that although TBS carried out an investigation into the incident in 2020, he was gaslit by the network into retracting the statement he made at that time. Rogers has denied the allegations.[29]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
2010 Naked Easter Director / Writer Short film
2012 Oysters Rockefeller Director / Writer Short film
2013 Autumn Whispers Director / Writer Short film
2013 Bad Friends Director / Writer Short film
2014 Fort Tilden Director / Writer Feature film debut
2015 Black Dog, Red Dog Director / Writer
2017 Men Don't Whisper Writer Short film

Television[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
2011 The Actress Director Episode: "Denise"
2012 Tech Up Director / Writer TV series
2015 Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp Staff writer 5 episodes
2016-2022 Search Party Creator / Writer 50 episodes
2017 Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later Writer Episode: "Lunch"

Recognition[edit]

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year Association Category Project Result Ref.
2014 Chicago International Film Festival Audience Choice Award Fort Tilden Nominated
2014 SXSW Film Festival Grand Jury Award - Narrative Feature Won
2014 Athens International Film Festival Best Picture Nominated
2014 Little Rock Film Festival Best Feature Film Nominated
2016 Gotham Award Breakthrough Series - Longform Search Party Nominated

References[edit]

  1. ^ "30 Under 30 2017: Hollywood & Entertainment". Forbes. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Hollywood's Power Showrunners: Ones to Watch". hollywoodreporter.com. 6 October 2017. Archived from the original on 8 January 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  3. ^ Variety Staff (14 June 2016). "10 TV Writers to Watch in 2016". variety.com. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  4. ^ "OUT100 2017". out.com. 8 November 2017. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  5. ^ "Perro negro, perro rojo / Black Dog, Red Dog". giff.festivalgenius.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  6. ^ "» home2015eng". www.giff.mx. Archived from the original on 4 July 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  7. ^ "Black Dog, Red Dog". 1 March 2018. Archived from the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018 – via www.imdb.com.
  8. ^ "Black Dog, Red Dog". rottentomatoes.com. Archived from the original on 9 December 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  9. ^ Kolmar, Jim. "SXSW FILM AWARDS ANNOUNCED!". Archived from the original on 14 August 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  10. ^ "Schedule - sxsw.com". SXSW Schedule 2014. Archived from the original on 11 September 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  11. ^ McNary, Dave (18 March 2015). "SXSW 2014 Winner 'Fort Tilden' Gets U.S. Distribution From Orion". variety.com. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  12. ^ Cott, Kaeli Van (29 June 2015). "Exclusive Poster for SXSW Winner 'Fort Tilden' Shows an Angsty Millennial Summer". indiewire.com. Archived from the original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  13. ^ Webster, Andy (August 13, 2015). "Review: 'Fort Tilden,' a Comic Odyssey to the Beach". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018.
  14. ^ Walsh, Katie (August 13, 2015). "Review: 'Fort Tilden' rips into millennial culture with a beach day from hell". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 28, 2015.
  15. ^ Edelstein, David (7 August 2015). "Movie Review: Fort Tilden -- Vulture". Vulture. Archived from the original on 2015-09-28.
  16. ^ "'Arrested Development' Alum Alia Shawkat to Star in Jax Media Comedy". The Hollywood Reporter. 22 March 2015. Archived from the original on 22 June 2016.
  17. ^ Lloyd, Robert (November 20, 2016). "'Search Party' has fun with mystery-story twists". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 6, 2016.
  18. ^ Philip, Tom (November 28, 2016). "'Search Party Is the Post-Thanksgiving Bingewatch You Need". Gentlemen's Quarterly. Archived from the original on September 28, 2017.
  19. ^ "Search Party". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on November 24, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  20. ^ "Search Party - Season 1". Metacritic. Archived from the original on November 21, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  21. ^ "Search Party: Season 2 - TV Reviews - Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Archived from the original on 26 November 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  22. ^ Lawson, Richard (16 November 2017). "Search Party Season 2 Is a Biting Satire Made for the Trump Era". vanityfair.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  23. ^ "'Search Party' Renewed for Season 5 at HBO Max". The Hollywood Reporter. 2021-02-09. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  24. ^ Debruge, Peter (4 December 2017). "Sundance Announces 2018 Shorts, Special Events and New Indie Episodic Lineups". variety.com. Archived from the original on 13 February 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  25. ^ "SXSW 2018 Schedule". Archived from the original on 2018-02-08. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  26. ^ "Men Don't Whisper". 14 February 2017. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018 – via www.imdb.com.
  27. ^ "The Problem with Charles & Casey podcast on Earwolf". Archived from the original on 2020-03-11. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  28. ^ "'Search Party' PA Accuses Showrunner Charles Rogers of Sexual Assault". 8 January 2024. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  29. ^ "'Search Party' Production Assistant Accuses Showrunner Charles Rogers of Sexual Assault". 9 January 2024. Archived from the original on 22 February 2024. Retrieved 22 February 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  30. ^ "30 Under 30 2017: Hollywood & Entertainment". Forbes. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  31. ^ "OUT100 2017". out.com. 8 November 2017. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  32. ^ "Hollywood's Power Showrunners: Ones to Watch". hollywoodreporter.com. 6 October 2017. Archived from the original on 8 January 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  33. ^ Variety Staff (14 June 2016). "10 TV Writers to Watch in 2016". variety.com. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.

External links[edit]

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