Rhys Thomas (director)


Rhys Thomas is a Welsh director and producer best known for his work on Saturday Night Live for NBC, in which he served as Film Unit producer and director of shorts and music, winning an Emmy Award in 2015, and the series Documentary Now! for IFC.
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Career

Rhys Thomas became the Saturday Night Live Film Unit producer in 2005 and in 2010 began directing shorts, music videos and commercial parodies for the show. He also directed and produced the SNL opening credit sequence in 2012–2018 and the opening credits for the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, which he also produced and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special in 2015. In 2015 he made his feature film debut with the film Staten Island Summer written by Colin Jost. That year he also directed John Mulaney’s Emmy nominated stand up special The Comeback Kid for Netflix.
Thomas is also a co-creator and director of the Emmy nominated IFC series, Documentary Now!. In 2016, he also produced the Adele Live in New York City concert special for NBC, for which he earned his fourth Prime Time Emmy nomination. He also produced and directed the opening credits for the talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers. In 2017, he produced and directed all six episodes of the Amazon Prime show Comrade Detective starring Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He teamed with Bill Hader again in 2018 for Pringles' first ever Super Bowl commercial.
In 2021, Thomas served as an Executive Producer and directed episodes 1, 2 and 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Hawkeye.

Filmography

FilmStaten Island Summer
Television
YearTitleDirectorProducerNotes
2009–2016Saturday Night LiveSNL shorts
2012–presentSaturday Night Live Opening Credits
2013Newsreaders3 episodes
2015The Comeback Kid
2015Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special
2015Adele Live in New York CityOpening Sequence
2015–2022Documentary Now!Also creator
2016–presentLate Night with Seth MeyersOpening Titles
2017Comrade Detective6 episodes
2018Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
2018Kansas CityPilot
2019John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch
2021ChadPilot
2021Hawkeye3 episodes
2026The Fall and Rise of Reggie DinkinsPilot