Warren Littlefield
Photo Credit: Michael Becker/FX
Birthdate: May 11th, 1952
NJ Town Affiliation: Montclair
Warren Littlefield was born on May 11th, 1952 in Montclair, NJ at Mountainside Hospital.
It was an incredible place to grow up – with economic, cultural, and racial diversity. It’s still a poster city of that today.
He grew up in a house with his mother, father, sister, and two grandmothers. There wasn’t a lot of money, but there was love. So at fourteen, Warren got his first job.
During his high school years, he worked at a plastics factory in Wayne on the maintenance crew and shoveling coal. No masks! His early years were not just work. He also loved TV and, at his mother’s urging, he joined the Jr. Wing of The Montclair Dramatic Club. That would change his life. While he had leading roles in a number of their theatre productions, looking back, he doesn’t think he was a very good actor. But the infectious quality of the world of entertainment was now in his heart.
In his college years, he was a teamster truck driver working in the tri-state area.The summer of the Watergate hearings he sat in bars in Paterson with his fellow teamsters feeling like they were watching history being made.
After graduating from Hobart and William Smith College with a degree in Psychology (It was the 70’s!) The entertainment world signaled an opportunity: Charlie Mortimer, who had run the Jr. Wing drama program in Montclair, was making a pilot. Did he want to be a gofer? He did.
After four years there, while living in a raucous group house in Montclair and getting his first producer credit, Los Angeles beckoned.
In December of ‘79, Warren went to work at NBC as a manager in comedy development. His 20 years there were marked by an incredible education by the masters of television like Fred Silverman, Brandon Tartikoff & Grant Tinker.
In the 80’s, the network went from irrelevance to dominance with shows like Cheers, Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, The Cosby Show, and The Golden Girls.
In the 90’s, when the baton was passed to Warren, he architected “Must See TV”. As President of the Entertainment Division, they orchestrated a return to first place in the ratings race, led by a long roster of hit series. They included: Seinfeld, ER, Friends, and Frasier. In his final year at NBC, he supervised the development of Will & Grace and The West Wing.
After 20 years, Warren exited NBC and began his chapter two.
It was a struggle to not be sitting on the network throne, but eventually his future emerged when Warren convinced Noah Hawley to adapt the legendary Coen Brothers’ feature Fargo for FX. Since then, The Littlefield Company has garnered a total 162 Emmy® nominations and 23 Emmy wins, alongside multiple Peabody Awards, PGAs, Golden Globes® and more. The successes include The Handmaid’s Tale, Fargo, Dopesick, and The Old Man.
He’s been married for more than 40 years and has 2 children. He lives in Los Angeles.