Photo by Michelle Delateur.

Industry Veteran Craig Shepherd Is New Film and Television Chair

Shepherd believes COM can be one of the nation’s “preeminent programs”

As a television and film producer and director, Craig H. Shepherd has worked on projects that have won the Sundance Film Festival, and multiple Emmy, Producers Guild, Peabody and James Beard awards. Working in feature films, documentaries, scripted and unscripted and branded content, Shepherd has  sold programming to every major streaming company and numerous distribution companies. While continuing those professional pursuits, Shepherd returns to college to share what he’s learned with COM students and faculty as the chair of film and television. Shepherd replaces outgoing chair Paul Schneider, a professor of the practice, who is retiring.

Streaming has transformed the tv and film landscape in untold ways, and Shepherd has been on the forefront of this change, carving a niche as a top developer and seller of new programming, especially feature documentaries and scripted and unscripted television. Since 2010, he’s done so for Zero Point Zero, where he is executive vice president of new business development and affairs for TV, film, and brands. 

Shepherd’s feature documentary credits with Zero Point Zero include Wild Wild Space (HBO); Saving the Gorillas: Ellen’s Next Adventure (HBO Max); The Witmans (Discovery+); Edgewood (HBO Max); Fries! (Peacock); and Martina Navratilova (Tennis Channel). Since Shepherd joined the company, Zero Point Zero has won a Peabody Award, 29 Emmy Awards, a Producers Guild of America Award, and five James Beard Foundation Awards, among many others. 

Craig Shepherd spent the last 15 years leading a top 100 global production company. His skills in innovation in a rapidly changing industry… will help propel the Film and TV department forward.

Mariette DiChristina

Shepherd says he will utilize his professional experiences to help lift COM’s film and television department to new success in an industry that has experienced near-complete upheaval during his career. “I know what the marketplace looks like—it is challenging now,” he says. “There is no doubt everyone will say the same thing, from heads of production companies to distributors themselves, to agents, to lawyers—it’s a little chaotic right now. People are mindful of budgets, there’s so much content out there, and so they can be picky and choosy….It is my duty and my obligation to make sure anyone who’s graduating from BU has this information in real time and also has the connections that I have.” 

Shepherd is a rare combination of pragmatic and creative. With his finance degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business, he first worked as a financial analyst for CBS Sports, but soon realized he “didn’t want to deal with budgets and finance 24/7.” So he went back to NYU for an MFA in film, which opened up new doors in directing and production. With that dual background, Shepherd felt he “could absolutely look at anything we wanted to do creatively, and I could understand a number associated with that,.” Early career success producing the groundbreaking Queer Eye, and the feature film Girlfight, put Shepherd on the map. Once he joined Zero Point Zero, he worked with the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain on No Reservations (Food Network / Travel Channel) and then CNN’s Parts Unknown. Zero Point Zero has produced several other food-based scripted television series since, including The Mind of a Chef and MeatEater, as well the award-winning My Next Guest with David Letterman (Netflix) and United Shades of America (CNN).

Mariette DiChristina (’86), dean and professor of the practice in journalism, is enthusiastic Shepherd will be bringing all this experience to COM. “Craig Shepherd spent the last 15 years leading a top 100 global production company,” she says. “His skills in innovation in a rapidly changing industry—and the resulting deep insights about what students need to learn at COM to succeed in their careers—will help propel the film and TV department forward.” 

Shepherd sees a lot of potential for BU’s film and TV program. “I think BU can be one of the preeminent—top-three, top-five—programs in the country,” Shepherd adds. “I view myself as the support that pushes the whole program up.”