Seith Mann (born 1973)"March 14, 2007...At 33, the D.C. native is one of the youngest African Americans directing television dramas" is an American film and television director. He directed the short film Five Deep Breaths (2003) and has gone on to direct episodes of The Wire, Grey's Anatomy and Fringe.
Biography Mann was inspired to become a director when he saw the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing. Mann graduated from Morehouse College and later earned an MFA in film at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
Five Deep Breaths Mann's thesis at New York University was the short film Five Deep Breaths. It was awarded the Spike Lee fellowship while in development in 2002. The film is set at an all-black college. After a physical assault upon a young woman by her boyfriend, another man, Mark, and his friends are moved to take revenge. Mann has commented that he likes morally ambiguous situations. The short starred Jamie Hector, Anslem Richardson, Marcuis Harris, Harvey Gardner Moore, Curtiss Cook, and Ka'ramuu Kush. The score was composed by jazz musician Jason Moran.
The film premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. It won first place in the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation Award (for Best Short Film), and The Carl Lerner Award for Film with Social Significance at the 2003 New York University First Run Festival. It was selected to screen at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival and one of four American shorts to screen at the Cinefondation Competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. It won a Gold Plaque for Narrative Short Film at the 2003 Chicago International Film Festival. It also won the Best Narrative Short Film award at the 2003 Los Angeles IFP/West Film Festival.
Film maker magazine named Mann one of their 25 new faces of independent film in 2003. They praised his direction of Five Short Breaths as "skillful". The IFP gave Mann the Gordon Parks Awards for Emerging African-American Filmmakers following the film's release.
Television Television Producer Robert F. Colesberry saw Five Deep Breaths and introduced the other producers of HBO drama The Wire to it. The producers approached Mann and asked him to shadow their directors during production of the third season in 2004. Show runner David Simon recalls that Colesberry wanted Mann to direct a third season episode but Colesberry's untimely death left the other producers reeling and they felt unable to risk a directorial debut in their first season without him. Page 5 Simon recalls Mann shadowing director Ernest R. Dickerson and showing a "careful interest in the process."
In 2006, Mann joined the directing crew of The Wire'''s fourth season. Simon felt obligated to give Mann a chance after his dedication to shadowing Dickerson. Mann made his television directing debut with the third episode of the season, "Home Rooms". Simon was pleased with the episode and described it as "beautifully covered."
Mann also was an ABC DGA Fellow class of 2005, a fellowship aimed at encouraging "diversity of race, gender and spirit in the filmmaking community." In 2007 Mann was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the category Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series for his work on episode "Home Rooms". Mann has commented that he was "excited" to receive the nomination and grateful to the NAACP for their work.
After The Wire, Mann worked on Grey's Anatomy directing two episodes in 2006, "The Name of the Game" and "Don't Stand So Close to Me". In 2007, Mann was nominated for a DGA Award in the category Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for his work on "The Name of the Game". Mann has also directed episodes of Heroes, Cold Case, Lincoln Heights, Jericho, Entourage, Friday Night Lights, Men in Trees, Shark, Fringe, Blindspotting, and The Walking Dead.
Future projects Mann is working on a feature film script entitled Come Sunday. The script won two development awards (the Emerging Narrative Screenwriting Award and the Gordon Parks Award for Screenwriting) from the IFP in 2004. In 2010, Mann was announced as director of Miss: Better Living Through Crime with Spike Lee producing. In 2016, Mann was writing the Black movie.
Filmography
Director
Year Show Episode Notes2026R.J. Decker"You've Got Bale"Season 1, episode 7Doc"Chief"Season 2, episode 102025 Brilliant Minds "The Doctor's Graveyard" Season 2, episode 6 Good American Family "Ghosts Everywhere" Season 1, episode 32022Let the Right One In"Broken Glass"Season 1, episode 3"Intercessors"Season 1, episode 2"Anything for Blood"Season 1, episode 12021Blindspotting"Smashley Rose"Season 1, episode 2"The Ordeal"Season 1, episode 12020#FreeRayshawn"He Just Wanted to Be Heard"Season 1, episode 15"It's Your Lucky Day, Marine"Season 1, episode 14"It's Time to Go"Season 1, episode 13"Fire in the Hole"Season 1, episode 12"Black or Blue"Season 1, episode 11"He's Telling the Truth"Season 1, episode 10"They All Want Me Dead, Don't They?"Season 1, episode 9"No Way Back"Season 1, episode 8"I'm Not a Negotiator"Season 1, episode 7"It's OK to Be Scared"Season 1, episode 6"Face to Face"Season 1, episode 5"Put the Brother On the Phone"Season 1, episode 4"Get Away From the Windows"Season 1, episode 3"Clear the Building"Season 1, episode 2"What Are You Doing Here?"Season 1, episode 1Homeland"One Chalk Up"Season 8, episode 14New Amsterdam"14 Years, 2 Months, 8 Days"Season 2, episode 122019Raising Dion"Issue #101: How Do You Raise a Superhero?" and "Issue #109: Storm Killer"Season 1, episode 1 and Season 1, episode 92018Elementary"Sober Companions"Season 6, episode 112017White Famous"Duality" and "Scandal"Season 1, episode 7 and Season 1, episode 9The Breaks"Under Pressure" and "N.T."Season 1, episode 7 and Season 1, episode 8Homeland"R Is for Romeo"Season 6, episode 112016Ballers"Everybody Knows"Season 2, episode 7The BreaksTV filmElementary"You've Got Me, Who's Got You?"Season 4, episode 172015Homeland"Our Man in Damascus"Season 5, episode 11Ballers"Machete Change"Season 1, episode 4VeracityShort filmElementary"The One That Got Away" and "The View from Olympus"Season 3, episode 12 and Season 3, episode 182014Homeland"There's Something Else Going On"Season 4, episode 9Hell on Wheels"Bleeding Kansas"Season 4, episode 11Rectify"Until You're Blue"Season 2, episode 9Nurse Jackie"The Lady with the Tramp" and "Sidecars and Spermicide"Season 6, episode 8 and Season 6, episode 10Californication"Getting the Poison Out"Season 7, episode 5Elementary"Ears to You" and "The Man with the Twisted Lip"Season 2, episode 17 and Season 2, episode 21The Walking Dead"Claimed" and "Consumed"Season 4, episode 11 and Season 5, episode 62013Homeland"A Red Wheel Barrow"Season 3, episode 8Unforgettable"Incognito"Season 2, episode 2Nurse Jackie"Walk of Shame"Season 5, episode 6Touch"Ghosts"Season 2, episode 7Californication"Everybody's a Fucking Critic"Season 5, episode 8Elementary"Possibility Two" and "The Woman"Season 1, episode 17 and Season 1, episode 23The Walking Dead"Home"Season 3, episode 102012Elementary"One Way to Get Off"Season 1, episode 7Falling Skies"Death Match"Season 2, episode 8Common Law"Hot for Teacher"Season 1, episode 11Nurse Jackie"The Wall" and "Slow Glowing Monsters"Season 4, episode 3 and Season 4, episode 4The Finder"The Great Escape"Season 1, episode 5House of Lies "Microphallus"Season 1, episode 3Californication"Boys & Girls"Season 5, episode 32011Dexter"Get Geller"Season 6, episode 9Hawthorne"Fight or Flight"Season 3, episode 2Californication"The Trial"Season 4, episode 10Detroit 1-8-7"Key to the City"Season 1, episode 122010My Generation"Birth/Rebirth"Season 1, episode 4Lie to Me"The Canary's Song"Season 3, episode 5Rubicon"Look to the Ant"Season 1, episode 6Fringe"Brown Betty"Season 2, episode 20Melrose Place"Stoner Canyon"Season 1, episode 14Mercy"Can We Talk About the Gigantic Elephant in the Ambulance?"Season 1, episode 13Friday Night Lights"Injury List"Season 4, episode 112009Californication"Dogtown" Season 3, episode 10 Heroes"Cold Wars" and "Thanksgiving"Season 3, episode 17 and Season 4, episode 10Hung"This is America or Fifty Bucks"Season 1, episode 9Harper's Island"Gasp"Season 1, episode 12Lie to Me"Undercover"Season 1, episode 112008Brotherhood"The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth"Season 3, episode 4Crash"Panic"Season 1, episode 3Everybody Hates Chris"Everybody Hates the English Teacher"Season 4, Episode 4Sons of Anarchy"AK-51"Season 1, episode 5Entourage"Redomption"Season 5, episode 6"Fire Sale"Season 5, episode 4The Riches"Slums of Bayou Hills"Season 2, episode 4Jericho"Patriots and Tyrants"Season 2, episode 7The Wire"The Dickensian Aspect"Season 5, episode 62007Shark"Student Body"Season 2, episode 5Men in Trees"Chemical Reactions"Season 2, episode 2Friday Night Lights"Are You Ready for Friday Night?"Season 2, episode 3Entourage"The Dream Team"Season 4, episode 5Jericho"One If by Land"Season 1, episode 20Lincoln Heights"House Arrest"Season 1, episode 12Cold Case"Blackout"Season 4, episode 132006Grey's Anatomy"Don't Stand So Close to Me"Season 3, episode 10"The Name of the Game"Season 2, episode 22The Wire"Home Rooms"Season 4, episode 32003Five Deep Breaths2001Apology
EditorAll We Know of Heaven (2004)Where to Find God on Sunday (2000)Kiss It Up to God (2000)
WriterBlack (TBA)Five Deep Breaths (2003)Apology (2001)
Assistant DirectorThe Living Silence'' (2003)
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