Sam Esmail

Sam Esmail (born September 17, 1977) is an American film and television producer, director, and screenwriter who runs the production company Esmail Corp. He is best known as the creator, writer, and director of the award-winning USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), starring Rami Malek. He wrote and directed the feature films Comet and Leave the World Behind (2023). He produced and directed the first season of the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video psychological thriller Homecoming (2018–2020), starring Julia Roberts and Janelle Monáe, and produced USA's Briarpatch (2020), Starz's Gaslit (2022), and Peacock's Angelyne (2022) and The Resort (2022). Esmail's work often centers on the themes of alienation, technology, and American society.

Early life and education Esmail was born to Egyptian immigrant parents in Hoboken, New Jersey. He has described his parents as "very strict Muslims, and they weren't shy about showing it." He has an older sister and two younger brothers, including Samer Esmail who was a post-production coordinator for Mr. Robot and Homecoming.

When he was five years old, As a child, Esmail was very interested in technology. He acquired his first computer when he was nine and began computer programming a few years later. The family eventually moved back to Sewell, New Jersey, where Esmail graduated from Washington Township High School in 1995.

Esmail attended New York University where he studied film and computer science. He graduated in 1998 from the university's Tisch School of the Arts. While attending the school, Esmail worked in its computer lab before being put on academic probation for hacking emails there. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in directing in 2004.

Career 2004–2014: Early career, Mockingbird and Comet After graduating the AFI Conservatory in 2004, Esmail struggled to find work and held odd jobs. He worked as an assistant film editor for a few years and was eventually able to establish a career as a post-production supervisor of behind-the-scenes features and television specials; his work included helping to edit episodes of reality television shows for Lifetime and A&E and stand-up specials for Comedy Central, HBO's documentary series Tourgasm and HBO First Look, and "the making of" features for The Fast and the Furious franchise, as well as supervise the 2010 A&E documentary The Battle for Late Night.

When not working as a full-time editor, Esmail worked on writing screenplays. he wrote another screenplay that also landed on the Black List the following year and co-wrote the horror film Mockingbird with writer Bryan Bertino, which was released in 2014. Comet premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and had a limited box office release. He has said that the main character, Elliot, is a "thinly-veiled version" of himself; like Elliot, Esmail also has social anxiety and is from Washington Township in New Jersey. Having secured management from Anonymous Content, Esmail shopped his projects around to many different television networks and began developing the show with USA Network in 2014.

Mr. Robot premiered on the USA Network on June 24, 2015. Esmail is the creator, executive producer and head writer of the series. Beginning with season two, Esmail also directed all episodes of the show; in total he directed thirty-eight of its forty-five episodes. Following the wide recognition of Mr. Robot, Esmail formed his own production company, Esmail Corp.

In early 2017, Esmail was called on by Universal Pictures to produce a film centered around the Bermuda Triangle, but production has since not been carried through.

Homecoming

Esmail was one of the executive producers and director of the Amazon Video series Homecoming, starring Julia Roberts and Bobby Cannavale. He received strong reviews for his direction of the show, which premiered in November 2018.

Briarpatch

In 2018, Esmail worked on creating the television show Briarpatch with journalist and producer Andy Greenwald, who previously hosted the Mr. Robot aftershow Hacking Robot on USA. The show, which Esmail executive produced, was picked up by USA Network in 2019. The show was released in 2020 as well as the second season of Homecoming, which Esmail executive produced but did not direct like he had the first season.

In February 2019, it was announced that Esmail had signed his company to a four-year exclusive deal with Universal Content Productions with whom he had already produced Mr. Robot, Homecoming, and Briarpatch. Following this announcement, a number of projects in development were announced which would be sold and produced in the following few years.

Angelyne

In 2019, it was announced that Esmail was developing a limited series with Emmy Rossum for the NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock based on the Los Angeles pseudo-celebrity Angelyne. Produced during the first half of 2020, Angelyne was ultimately released May 19, 2022.

2021–present: Career expansion In September 2020, Esmail sold two dramas to ABC; in January 2021, a pilot was ordered for the first of those shows, Acts of Crime, but was not picked up by the network.

Gaslit

In February 2020, it was also announced that Esmail would be producing a new television series with Homecoming collaborator Julia Roberts based on the Slow Burn podcast's coverage of the Watergate scandal. Titled Gaslit, production began in Spring 2021 and it premiered on Starz in April 2022.

Leave the World Behind

Also in 2020, it was announced that Esmail would direct a film adaptation of the novel Leave the World Behind for Netflix starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Myha'la Herrold. Production began in April 2022, at which time Barack and Michelle Obama's Higher Ground Productions had joined the project as producers. Leave the World Behind released in 2023 to positive reviews from critics.

The Resort

In June 2021, it was announced that Peacock had picked up The Resort, a darkly comedic television series which features true crime stories that took place at resorts. First announced in 2020, Esmail, who serves as executive producer, developed the project with screenwriter Andy Siara. The eight episode series went into production in 2022, In July 2024, it was announced that the development of the series had been cancelled.

In March 2022, Apple ordered to series the television adaptation of the 1927 sci-fi classic Metropolis, to be written, directed, and produced by Esmail. The project was first revealed in 2016. On June 18, 2023, it was announced the project was cancelled.

In development

Since 2018, Esmail has been developing a film with Universal Pictures and Mr. Robot star Rami Malek based on the memoir American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent by Tamer Elnoury and Kevin Maurer; the story centers on a Muslim FBI agent working for the agency post-9/11. Two years following the initial announcement, in September 2020, it was announced that screenwriter Nazrin Choudhury is attached to pen the film. As of 2019, Esmail and Malek were also working together on another undisclosed project. He began developing television series The American Throne with director Julius Onah in 2021. Other projects in various stages of pre-production include a miniseries based on an ensemble comedy False Alarm produced with Paul Feig, and a Coast Guard-centered procedural drama series titled So Others May Live. As of 2019, he is also producing a scripted podcast series for the UCP Audio network called This End Up.

Personal life

In August 2015, Esmail became engaged to actress Emmy Rossum after dating for two years. He had directed her in his debut film, Comet. The two married on May 28, 2017, at the Central Synagogue in New York City. They have two children: a daughter (born May 2021) and a son (born April 2023).

Esmail is fluent in Arabic, notably giving part of his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes in the language.

Esmail has social anxiety disorder and credits his wife Rossum for helping him with it.

Filmography Film Short film Year Title Director Producer 2002 The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special 2004 Deep Down in Florida

Feature film Year Title Director Writer Producer 2014 Comet Mockingbird 2023 Leave the World Behind 2027 Panic Carefully TBA Famous The Hole

Executive producer Risk (2016)

Television Year Title Director Writer Executiveproducer Notes 2015–2019 Mr. Robot Also creator,Directed 38 episodes, wrote 24 episodes 2018–2020 Homecoming Directed 10 episodes 2020 Briarpatch 2021 Acts of Crime Unaired pilot 2022 Gaslit Miniseries Angelyne The Resort

Documentary Year Title Role 2008–2009 HBO First Look Post-production coordinator (3 episodes) 2010 The Battle for Late Night Post-production supervisor

Awards and nominations