Christopher Carl Carter (born October 13, 1956) is an American television and film producer, director and writer who gained fame in the 1990s as the creator of the Fox science fiction supernatural drama series ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...

''. Born in Bellflower, California, Carter graduated with a degree in journalism from

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities ...

before spending thirteen years working for ''

Surfing Magazine ''Surfing Magazine'', originally titled ''International Surfing Magazine'', was a magazine that was founded in 1964 by Orange County local Dick Graham and surf photographer Leroy Grannis. Later the magazine was acquired by Adrian B. Lopez, a New Yo ...

''. After beginning his television career working on television films for Walt Disney Studios, Carter rose to fame in 1993 for creating ''The X-Files''. The show earned high viewership ratings, and eventually led to Carter's being able to negotiate the creation of future series. Carter has his own television production company,

Ten Thirteen Productions Ten Thirteen Productions is a production company founded by Chris Carter in 1993, which produced four television series and two films (''The X-Files'' and '' The X-Files: I Want to Believe''). The company was named after Carter's birthday, October ...

, wherein he went on to create three more series for the network—''

Millennium A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannus, kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...

'', a doomsday-themed series which met with critical approval and low viewer numbers; ''

Harsh Realm ''Harsh Realm'' is an American science fiction television series about humans trapped inside a virtual reality simulation. It was developed by Chris Carter, creator of ''The X-Files'' and ''Millennium'', and began airing on the Fox Network on Oc ...

'', which was canceled after three episodes had aired; and ''

The Lone Gunmen The Lone Gunmen are a trio of fictional characters, Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers, who appeared in recurring roles on the American television series ''The X-Files'', and who starred in the short-lived spin-of ...

'', a spin-off of ''The X-Files'' which lasted for a single season. Carter's film roles include writing both of ''The X-Files'' cinematic spin-offs—1998's successful ''

'' and the poorly received 2008 follow-up '' The X-Files: I Want to Believe'', the latter of which he also directed—while his television credits have earned him several accolades including eight

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

nominations.

Early life

Chris Carter was born on October 13, 1956 in Bellflower, California. His father worked in the construction industry. Carter has described his childhood as "fairly normal", and was fond of both

Little League Baseball Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizationgoofy footed. He attended

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporat ...

, graduated with a journalism degree in 1979. An avid surfer, he began writing for ''

'', a San Clemente-based journal, eventually becoming its editor at the age of 28. Carter would work for the magazine for thirteen years, and credits his tenure there for teaching him how to run a business. It was also at this time that Carter began taking an interest in pottery, making "hundreds of thousands of pieces" of dinnerware as a hobby. He has compared the process of making pottery to Zen meditations, although he has since thrown out most of his work.

Personal life

In 1983, Carter began dating Dori Pierson, whom he had met through a cousin of hers who worked with him at ''Surfing Magazine''. The couple were married in 1987, and live in Santa Barbara.

Career

Starting in television

Pierson's connections at Walt Disney Studios led to chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg hiring Carter on a standard contract. Carter began writing television films for the studio, penning '' The B.R.A.T. Patrol'' in 1986 and '' Meet the Munceys'' in 1988. These scripts led to Carter being associated with contemporary youth comedy at the studio, and although he enjoyed the work he felt that his real strengths and interests lay in serious drama instead. Carter met the then-president of NBC, Brandon Tartikoff, at a company softball game in

Brentwood, California Brentwood is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population is 66,854 as of 2022, an increase of 287% from 23,302 at the 2000 census. Brentwood began ...

. Tartikoff and Carter began talking between innings, and when Tartikoff eventually read some of Carter's script work, he brought him over to write for the network. There, Carter developed a number of unproduced

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other dis ...

s—''Cameo By Night'', featuring

Sela Ward Sela Ann Ward (born July 11, 1956) is an American actress, author, and producer. Her breakthrough TV role was as Teddy Reed in the NBC drama series '' Sisters'' (1991–1996), for which she received her first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstandin ...

; '' Brand New Life'', which has been described as being similar to ''

The Brady Bunch ''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family with six children. The show aired for five seasons and, afte ...

''; ''Copter Cop'', a science fiction series that was hampered by Tartikoff's injuries after a car accident; and ''Cool Culture'', influenced by Carter's passion for surfing and experience with ''Surfing Magazine''. During this time Carter would also work as a producer on ''

Rags to Riches Rags to riches refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth, and in some cases from absolute obscurity to heights of fame, fortune and celebrity—sometimes instantly. This is a common archetype in literature and popul ...

'', a job he accepted in order to learn more about producing a series. Peter Roth, at that time the president of Stephen J. Cannell Productions, obtained a copy of Carter's pilot script for ''Cool Culture'', and although the series was never picked up, Roth was interested in hiring Carter to work on the CBS series ''

Palace Guard ''Palace Guard'' is an American crime drama television series that was briefly broadcast by CBS from October 18 to November 1, 1991, as part of its 1991 fall lineup. It was produced by Stephen J. Cannell. Synopsis ''Palace Guard'' is the story ...

''. However, Roth would soon leave Cannell Productions to work for Fox as the head of its television production wing. Carter was among the first wave of new staff hired by Roth in 1992 to develop material for the network, and he began work on a series based on his own childhood fondness for ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...

'' and '' Kolchak: The Night Stalker''.

''The X-Files'' and success

Carter's new series would take its stylistic inspiration from ''Kolchak'', while thematically reflecting his experiences growing up during the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...

. Carter also drew inspiration from his friend John E. Mack's survey of American beliefs in

ufology Ufology ( ) is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and ...

, which indicated that of the population believed they had been abducted by aliens. Roth warmed to the idea upon hearing of the influence of ''Kolchak'', believing that vampires—one of the central antagonists of the original series—would be popular with audiences given the interest being shown in the upcoming film '' Interview with the Vampire'', although Carter insisted on an extraterrestrial-focused series. However, Carter had never been interested in science fiction before this point, professing to have briefly read one novel each by

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...

and Robert A. Heinlein. Basing his characters instead on those found in the English television series '' The Avengers'', Carter took an eighteen-page treatment for his new project—by now titled ''

''—to a pitch meeting at Fox, where it was soon rejected. With the help of Roth, Carter was able to arrange a second pitch meeting, at which the network reluctantly agreed to greenlight a pilot for the series. After finding the series' two starring leads in

Gillian Anderson Gillian Leigh Anderson ( ; born August 9, 1968) is an American actress. Her credits include the roles of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the series ''The X-Files'', ill-fated socialite Lily Bart in Terence Davies's film '' The House of Mirt ...

and

David Duchovny David William Duchovny ( ; born ) is an American actor, writer, producer, director, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He is known for portraying FBI agent Fox Mulder on the television series ''The X-Files'' (1993–2002, 2016-2018) and as write ...

, Carter was given a budget of to produce a

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in television in the United States, United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a te ...

. The series aired on Friday nights on the Fox network, being broadcast in tandem with '' The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.'' in what was perceived to be an unpopular timeslot. The series earned relatively impressive

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

for its Friday timeslot, and was given a full twenty-four episode order. The series' popularity and critical acclaim built over the course of its second and third seasons, and saw it earning its first Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama and breaking the record for highest price paid by a network for rights to air re-runs, fetching $600,000 per episode from Fox's sister network FX. After Carter's initial three-year signing for Fox had ended, the success of the series allowed him to negotiate a five-year contract with several additional perks, including the guarantee of a feature film adaptation to be produced by the parent company's film studio, and the greenlighting of Carter's next television project. In March 2015, it was confirmed that Carter was set to executive produce and write for the revival of ''

'', which was set for a six-episode event series. In 2017 it was announced that The X-Files would return to Fox with a ten-episode season 11, with Carter set to executive produce and write. Both Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny returned, as well as veteran writers Glen Morgan,

Darin Morgan Darin Morgan (born 1966) is an American screenwriter best known for several offbeat, darkly humorous episodes of the television series ''The X-Files'' and ''Millennium''. His teleplay for the ''X-Files'' episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" wo ...

, and Jim Wong, and newcomers Gabe Rotter, Benjamin Van Allen, and Brad Follmer. The eleventh season has received generally positive if somewhat lukewarm reviews from critics, but ratings fell dramatically, and Gillian Anderson has stated she will not play Scully again. In August 2020, Fox announced that an animated comedy spin-off series was in development. In October 2020, Chris Carter said: "I always thought there would be even more ''X-Files''." He admitted that continuing the series at this point with Duchovny and Anderson is unlikely, but has plans to continue the franchise with an upcoming animated spinoff. "Being that Gillian has decided to move on with her career, we certainly couldn't do Mulder and Scully again. But that's not to say there isn't another way to do ''The X-Files''. And so right now I think the future is unwritten." The rights are now owned by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

''Millennium''

Carter began work on a new series, ''

''. The genesis of this new project stemmed from " Irresistible", a second-season episode of ''The X-Files'' which Carter had written, which focused on a sexually motivated serial killer with none of that series' usual supernatural trappings. Order in Chaos, 00:03–00:45 Carter fleshed out the basis of the new show's protagonist, Frank Black, and travelled to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

for inspiration for a new setting. Influence was also drawn from the works of

Nostradamus Michel de Nostredame (December 1503 – July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, apothecary, physician, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book '' Les Prophéties'' (published in 1555), a collection ...

, and the increasing popular interest in

eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...

ahead of the coming millennium. The central role of Black was eventually filled by Lance Henriksen, and the series began airing in the Friday timeslot formerly occupied by ''The X-Files''. " Pilot", the début episode, was heavily promoted by Fox, and brought in over a quarter of the total audience during its broadcast. The series also attracted a high degree of critical appraisal, earning a People's Choice Award for "Favorite New TV Dramatic Series" in its first year. At the beginning of the second season, Carter handed over control of the series to Glen Morgan and James Wong, with whom he had previously worked on both ''Millennium'' first season and several seasons of ''The X-Files''. Despite its promising start, however, ratings for ''Millennium'' after the pilot remained consistently low, and it was cancelled after three seasons.

Feature films

During the production of the fourth season of ''The X-Files'', work on the first feature film adaptation of the series began. Also titled ''

'', Carter initially began a treatment for the script over Christmas holidays in Hawaii in 1996. Series producer Frank Spotnitz collaborated on the story outline at this time. Carter would later return to Hawaii for a ten-day stint in 1997 to begin fleshing out the finished script. Carter appointed frequent series director Rob Bowman as director of the film, which went on to feature many of the series' regular cast, including Duchovny, Anderson, Mitch Pileggi and

William B. Davis William Bruce Davis (born January 13, 1938) is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as the Cigarette Smoking Man on ''The X-Files''. Besides appearing in many TV programs and movies, he founded his own acting school, the William Davis Ce ...

. ''The X-Files'' premiered on June 19, 1998, eventually making a worldwide gross of $189 million, and received mixed reviews. Ten years after the success of the first film, and six years after ''The X-Files'' final season had finished, Carter would both write and direct a second feature film, titled '' The X-Files: I Want to Believe''. Filmed in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

, ''I Want To Believe'' was released on July 25, 2008; eventually grossing $68,369,434 worldwide. The film was received generally negative reviews from critics.

Other work

Carter has had several brief cameo roles as an actor — first appearing in ''The X-Files'' "

Anasazi The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, ...

" as an FBI agent; before portraying a member of a film audience in " Hollywood A.D.", a later episode of the same series. Carter also made a brief appearance in " Three Men and a Smoking Diaper", an episode of ''The Lone Gunmen''. In 1999, Carter began adapting the comic book series ''Harsh Realm'' as a television show. Carter's friend and frequent collaborator

Daniel Sackheim Daniel Sackheim (born in 1962) is an American television and film director, producer, and photographer. Sackheim has produced and directed for ''The X-Files'', ''Law & Order'', ''House'' and ''NYPD Blue''. He also directed '' The Walking Dead,'' ...

had optioned the comics for adaptation in 1996. However, when the series first aired on October 8, 1999, the comics' writers Andrew Paquette and James Hudnall were given no writing credits for the work; the two then filed suit against Fox to be credited for their work. ''Harsh Realm'' received disappointing viewing figures, and was cancelled after only three episodes had been broadcast. Two years later, Carter launched a spin-off of ''The X-Files'' titled ''

'', a series centred on three minor characters from the former series. ''The Lone Gunmen'' was cancelled after thirteen episodes, later receiving a coda in the form of a crossover episode with ''The X-Files''. Carter has since been involved with writing and directing the as-yet unreleased film ''Fencewalker'', set to feature

Natalie Dormer Natalie Dormer (born 11 February 1982)Katie Cassidy. In 2011, he began working to develop ''Unique'', a police thriller television series; the project was eventually dropped before completion. Carter next began work on the

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

television series '' The After''. The pilot episode was made available for viewing on February 6, 2014; the series was green-lit the following month, but finally cancelled on January 5, 2015, without another episode beyond the pilot being shot.

Accolades

Carter's work has earned him several accolades over his career, including eight nominations at the

s. Carter has also received award nominations for the Directors Guild of America Awards, the

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

s, and the

British Academy Television Awards The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the BAFTA. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in 1955, consisted of six categories. Until ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * * *

External links

* * * Joiner, James (March 24, 2015)
"'The X-Files' Creator Chris Carter on Scully and Mulder's Return"
''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Chris 1956 births American male screenwriters American television directors American television writers California State University, Long Beach alumni Film directors from California Film producers from California Science fiction film directors Living people People from Bellflower, California Television producers from California Showrunners American male television writers Screenwriters from California 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male writers