Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is an American business executive and the national executive director and chief negotiator for

SAG-AFTRA The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

in 2000 and has also held the roles of general counsel and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

. Crabtree-Ireland has been a judge pro tem of the

Los Angeles County Superior Court The Superior Court of Los Angeles County is the California Superior Courts of California, Superior Court located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The Sup ...

and an adjunct professor at the

USC Gould School of Law The University of Southern California Gould School of Law located in Los Angeles, California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Or ...

. He is a board member of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the

Entertainment Community Fund The Entertainment Community Fund, formerly The Actors Fund, is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports performers and behind-the-scenes workers in performing arts and entertainment, helping more than 17,000 people directly each year. Se ...

, and the

Motion Picture & Television Fund The Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) is a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries and their families with limited or no resources, including services such as tempo ...

Early life and education

Crabtree-Ireland was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, and raised in Dallas. He studied

Gender Studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field n ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

, and earned a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degree from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, in 1998. He had considered joining the

U.S. Foreign Service The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system used by the diplomatic service of the United States federal government, under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of over 13,000 professionals carryi ...

and becoming a professional diplomat.

Career

Crabtree-Ireland worked as a

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

for the

Los Angeles County District Attorney The District Attorney of Los Angeles County is in charge of the office that prosecutor, prosecutes felony and misdemeanor crimes that occur within Los Angeles County, California, United States. The current district attorney (DA) is Nathan Hochma ...

's office for two years, before joining

SAG-AFTRA The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

in 2000. He became general counsel in 2006, and was named

in 2014. Crabtree-Ireland also served as deputy national executive director of the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

(SAG). He has held the roles of national executive director and chief negotiator since 2021. Crabtree-Ireland represented the

during negotiations of the

Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances is a multilateral treaty which regulates copyright for audiovisual performances and expands the performers' rights. It was adopted on 26 June 2012 by the Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of ...

, which was adopted by the

World Intellectual Property Organization The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to pr ...

in 2012 and regulates copyright for audiovisual performances and expands performers' rights. He also played a major role in the merger between SAG and

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) was a performers' union that represented a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording ...

(AFTRA) in 2012. He worked on an international treaty on

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

, and negotiated with

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

to create the first labor contract in the United States for

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar Drama (film and television), drama genres around the w ...

actors. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Crabtree-Ireland worked on safety measures and participated in negotiations with studios on return-to-work agreements in 2020. He was the lead negotiator during the

2023 SAG-AFTRA strike From July 14 to November 9, 2023, the American actors' union SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) went on strike over a labor dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Pro ...

, and also in the 2024-2025 SAG-AFTRA video game strike. He heads the union's bilingual initiative, and co-hosts the

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

''SAG-AFTRA en Español'', alongside Ana Carolina Grajales. Crabtree-Ireland has led several departments at SAG-AFTRA, including: administration and

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

;

diversity, equity, and inclusion In the United States, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are organizational frameworks that seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly groups who have historically been underrepresented or subject ...

; government affairs; governance; legal; professional representatives; and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

. According to ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', he "helped land the first augmentation of streaming payments to include worldwide usage and the first health and retirement plan contributions from streaming payments". Crabtree-Ireland is also a judge pro tem of the

and an adjunct professor at the

Crabtree-Ireland received the Peggy Browning Award and the Co-President's Award from the LGBTQ+ Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. In 2023, he was included in ''

Out Out or OUT may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films *Out (1957 film), ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 *Out (1982 film), ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander *O ...

'' magazine's annual

Out100 ''Out'' is an American LGBTQ news, fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle (sociology), lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any LGBTQ monthly publication in the United States. ''Out'' was owned by Robert Hardman of Boston, its orig ...

list, as well as ''Variety'' annual list of the 500 most influential business leaders in the media industry. He was among the recipients of the Impact Award at the

7th Astra Film Awards The 7th Astra Film Awards, presented by the Hollywood Creative Alliance, took place on January 6, 2024, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. It was produced by Content.23 Media, DIGA Studios, and Vox Productions. The nominations were announc ...

in 2024.

Board service

Crabtree-Ireland was appointed to

SoundExchange SoundExchange is an American non-profit collective rights management organization spun off from the RIAA in 2003. It is the sole organization designated by the U.S. Congress to collect and distribute digital performance royalties for sound r ...

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

in 2012. He is

chairperson The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a Board of directors, board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by ...

of the SAG-AFTRA & Industry Sound Recordings Distribution Fund's

board of trustees A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

, as well as co-chair of the American Federation of Music & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund's board of trustees. Crabtree-Ireland is also a board member of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan, the SAG-Producers Pension Plan, and the

, and he is on the board of trustees of the

Personal life

Crabtree-Ireland and his husband were among the first 100 same-sex couples to get married in San Francisco in 2004 before the unions were annulled by the

Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the judiciary of California, courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly ...

. The couple live in Los Angeles, and have adopted five children.

References

External links

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland
at

SAG-AFTRA The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland
at

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

* {{imdb name, nm4546249 1970s births Living people American business executives American chief operating officers American gay men American prosecutors Gay businessmen Georgetown University alumni LGBTQ people from California LGBTQ people from Tennessee Businesspeople from Los Angeles Businesspeople from Memphis, Tennessee SAG-AFTRA people UC Davis School of Law alumni

Early life and education

Career

Board service

Personal life

See also

References

External links