These are good times for Eric Appel, who not only had a DGA Award nomination for his work as a director this season, he is also a double nominee as co-writer and producer of Roku’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. That film, which had its world premiere a year ago at the Toronto Film Festival, winning the People’s Choice Award in the Midnight Madness section, has been nominated for eight Emmys overall, the most overall for any nominee in the Outstanding Television Movie category, and in fact is the most for any film in that category in several years.
In addition, Apple is also the longtime director of Die Hart, the Kevin Hart shorts series that has been nominated in four Shorts categories, all for its cast including Hart. That series, which started on the now-defunct Quibi, has found a whole new life on Roku, which thanks to Appel-directed projects has racked up an impressive 12 nominations this year.
Appel joins me for today’s episode of my Deadline video series Behind the Lens, where we talk about all this good fortune, as well as his beginnings at Funny Or Die, a job that has led him ultimately to the Emmys.
To watch our conversation, click on the video above.
