TV Legend David E. Kelley to Receive ATX TV Festival's First Showrunner Award

Time for a celebratory cigar? Boston Legal, one of the many series that has led to David E. Kelley being the winner of the inaugural Showrunner Award at this year's ATX TV Festival. (Image Courtesy of ABC Television)

The inaugural winner of any honor says a lot about its prestige. So the first winner of the ATX TV Festival Showrunner Award marks this as a major plaudit, with the first recipient being TV legend David E. Kelley.

What’s a showrunner? The old joke in the TV business is that it’s a title that comes with no cash but a lot of responsibilities. Yet since the term became commonly used in the 1990s it’s come to mean the creative force that gives overall vision, guidance, and direction to the structure of a series.

Kelley undeniably fits that bill. A lawyer by training, Kelley broke into entertainment with his script for the 1997 legal thriller From the Hip. His legal background was what brought Kelley to TV, as Steven Bochco hired him on L.A. Law as a writer and story editor with legal experience. From there, he became one of the most important figures in TV, from the heyday of one-hour network dramas to the modern streaming scene. Along with legal dramas and comedies like The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and The Lincoln Lawyer, he's dipped into mystery (Big Little Lies, Big Sky), hospitals (Chicago Hope, Monday Mornings), and even horror, as showrunner for the TV adaptation of Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes.

However, Kelley’s induction isn’t the only addition to this year’s ATX TV Festival (May 29-June 1). If the Emmy-winning showrunner represents the grand history of TV over the last 30 years, then Pain Points of the Indie TV Ecosystem looks at its future. The panel includes Mark Duplass (Duplass Brothers Productions) who will also be discussing his new show on Kinema, The Long Long Night. Also in attendance will be Kinema CEO Christie Marchese, Seed & Spark CEO Emily Best, Macaroni Art founders Rick Gomez and Steve Zahn, and Oscar-nominated documentarian Smriti Mundhra, founder of Meralta Films.

Mundhra will have a packed weekend. Not only will she be part of the indie TV panel, but she’ll also appear in promotion of two docuseries from her shingle. Bollywood Dance U explores the hard work going on behind the scenes of collegiate Bollywood fusion dance, while she’ll be sitting down with executive producer Senain Kheshgi and the eponymous matchmakers of Muslim Matchmaker, Hoda Abrahim & Yasmin Elhady, to discuss this semi-spin-off from her earlier show, Indian Matchmaking.

Those three panels join an already packed roster for this year’s festival, which has previously announced previews for the King of the Hill revival, and Max's Duster, a look behind the scenes of Late Night With Seth Meyers with, well, Seth Meyers, plus a Mad Men retrospective with Jon Hamm and John Slattery.

ATX TV Festival 2025 will run May 29-June 1. Passes are available at atxfestival.com.