Betsy Beers


Betsy Beers is an American television and film producer whose credits include ShondaLand's Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice, How to Get Away with Murder, The Catch, Station 19, and For the People.

Life and career

A graduate of Williams College where she studied theater and English literature, Beers acted and performed comedy for several years in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to make the transition to producing.
While living in New York City, Beers was producer to the 1999 cult film 200 Cigarettes. The cult favorite had an all star cast that included Courtney Love, Guillermo Diaz, Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci and Ben Affleck. 200 Cigarettes is also the first film to star Goldie Hawn's daughter, Kate Hudson.
Beers served as President of director Mike Newell’s Dogstar Films, where she produced the films 200 Cigarettes, starring Ben Affleck, Dave Chappelle, and Kate Hudson, and Best Laid Plans, starring Reese Witherspoon. She also developed such films as High Fidelity, directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack, as well as Pushing Tin, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, and Angelina Jolie. She also served as Executive Producer on the films Safe Passage, starring Susan Sarandon, and Witch Hunt, starring Dennis Hopper, with producer Gale Ann Hurd.
She then served as President of the Mark Gordon Company. While there, she oversaw the development and production of its feature film and television projects, including the development of Grey's Anatomy. Additionally, Ms. Beers produced the feature films The Hoax, starring Richard Gere, and Casanova, starring Heath Ledger; both films were directed by Lasse Hallström.
In 2009, Beers partnered with Shonda Rhimes' production company ShondaLand to develop and produce additional feature film and television projects.

Awards

For her work on Grey's Anatomy, Beers and her fellow producers were awarded the 2007 Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America, the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series Drama, and received the 2006 and 2007 Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series. Beers has been nominated three times by the Producers Guild of America for their Television Producer of the Year Award.
In 2014, Scandal was awarded the American Film Institute's Television Program of the Year Award. as well as a Peabody Award.