Vince Gilligan: Creating Shows That Changed Television  

Writer, Director; Creator, Pluribus and Breaking Bad

Vince Gilligan is the creator of the television drama Breaking Bad and co-creator of its prequel series, Better Call Saul. The intertwined shows were included as “TV Programs of the Year” ten times by the American Film Institute and garnered four Peabody Awards and sixteen Emmy® Awards. Both series were filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as was Pluribus, his new science fiction series starring Rhea Seehorn on Apple TV. 

Gilligan was born in Richmond, Virginia and raised in Farmville (the real place, not the video game) and Chesterfield County. He received the Virginia Governor’s Screenwriting Award in 1989—which he remembers very fondly, as it gave him his start in the business. 

As a writer and producer on The X-Files, Gilligan shared Golden Globe® Awards in 1997 and 1998 for Best Drama Series.  

He lives in New Mexico with his longtime partner, Holly Rice. 

Emmy Award-Winning Host and Entertainment Journalist

Jenelle Riley is a three-time Emmy Award winner for her work as writer/producer/host of PBS' "Actors on Actors.” She frequently hosts the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations, where she has moderated career retrospectives with such artists as Leonardo DiCaprio and Viola Davis. She wrote the award-winning short film "Warning Labels," directed by Jennifer Morrison and starring Karen Gillan and Rose McIver. Other short films include the Palm Springs Film Festival Best of Fest Winner "Crazy Love," "The Perfect Candidate," and "Grand Gestures." 

She won the L.A. Weekly Theatre Award for writing and directing "A Kind of Love Story," which has been published by Dramatists Inc. and performed in three countries. Other plays include "Jane Austen's Emma Frankenstein," "Heart Murmurs and Brain Matter," and "Comfortably Numb." She spent 12 years as the Awards and Features Editor at Variety, where she oversaw several "10 to Watch" programs, recognizing such early talent as Greta Gerwig, Mahershala Ali, and Glen Powell.