Gail Mancuso - Biography

Noted TV series director Gail Mancuso grew up in suburban Cook County, Illinois. Mancuso began her career as an usher of the set of several television talk shows. Later, became a script supervisor for the Showtime Cable Network comedy "Brothers". In 1989, she began serving as associate director for the ABC-TV sitcom series "Roseanne". After one of the show's directors left in 1991, she had the chance to become one of the main directors and continued until the show's eighth season. She went on to direct episodes of many television series like the long-running NBC-TV sitcom "Friends", and the ABC sitcoms "Dharma and Greg" and "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place". In 2007, Gail began working on the CBS-TV sitcom series "Rules of Engagement". She has also directed episodes of ABC-TV's "30 Rock" and NBC-TV's "Scrubs". In 2008, she won a Gracie Award for her work on "30 Rock". In 2011, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her "Modern Family" episode "Slow Down Your Neighbors". In 2012, she reunited with "Roseanne" co-stars Roseanne Barr and John Goodman, both of whom she directed on "Roseanne", in the pilot episode of "Downwardly Mobile", which was commissioned by NBC-TV, but ultimately did not get picked up by the network. In 2013, she won the Emmy Award for directing episode "Arrested" on "Modern Family". Gail is happily married to Brian Downs, a doctor; they have three children. The family divides its' time between their homes in Valencia, California and River Forest, Illinois.