Bill Hader joins Alan Alda as Second Person With Most DGA Comedy Wins

Bill Hader and Alan Alda now share an important DGA Record. At least until their next next win that is.

With the Oscars getting closers, Awards Season is still in full swing, this time it was time to shine a light on the Directors Guild of America’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards for 2022. The DGA Awards honor the best directors in both film and television. Judd Apatow hosted the ceremony for the fourth time before a capacity audience of more than 800 guests.

There had been only one individual to ever win 3 Directors Guild Awards for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series, and that is the iconic actor and director Alan Alda (M*A*S*H, Marriage Story), but now after his 3rd win for “Barry” at the 2023 DGA Awards, Bill Hader is joining him in that spot. Bill Hader was recognized for his work on “Barry” for a 3rd time, making him the 2nd person ever to win 3 DGA Awards, and 2 consecutively.

The Saturday Night Live alum turned TV show producer co created the show “Barry” in 2018. The dark comedy, crime drama created by Alec Berg and Bill Hader stars Hader as Barry Berkman, a hitman from Cleveland, disillusioned at the thought of taking down another “mark,” Barry seeks a way out. When the Midwesterner reluctantly travels to Los Angeles to execute a hit on an actor, he finds himself joining an acting class taught by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), where he meets aspiring actress Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg) who becomes the object of his affection. While Barry wants to start a new life as an actor, his handler, Fuches (Stephen Root) and his associate NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) has other ideas, and the hit man’s criminal past won’t let him walk away so easily.

This is Hader’s third DGA Award nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series. He won twice consecutively in this category in 2019 for Barry, “Chapter One: Make Your Mark”, the pilot episode of the series, and again in 2020 for Barry, “Ronny/Lily”, one of the show’s best episodes, season 2 episode 5. After the show took a long hiatus from production due to covid restrictions, “Barry” returned with season 3 in 2022 and in 2023 Hader won again for “710N”, episode 6 of season 3. The show is currently in production for season 4.

The comedy series category also included Tim Burton for “Wednesday”, Amy Sherman-Palladino for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, Christopher Storer for “The Bear” and Mike White for “The White Lotus”.

When announcing Bill Hader as the winner, Judd Apatow did not hesitate to poke fun at the fact that he did not make it to the ceremony. “Let’s have another round of applause for Bill Hader for NOT showing up!” Apatow said.

The show with the most amount of wins in the Comedy series category is “M*A*S*H” with 8 awards, while “Barry”, “All in the Family”, “Seinfeld” and “Veep” are all tied at 2nd place with 3 wins.

The number of the most DGA Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series by any individual is currently held by James Burrows. Following him is Alan Alda and Bill Hader, the two now share the spot for the 2nd Individual with the most DGA Wins in the category, both now tied with 3 wins and 2 consecutive wins. Funnily enough Alan Alda is someone Hader has impersonated multiple times on SNL, and to now share a record with him is quite a feat.