Dec. 18 (UPI) — The Producers Guild of America announced Wednesday that it plans to honor Taika Waititi with its Norman Lear Award for his extraordinary contributions in television.
Waititi, 49, is the New Zealand-born mastermind behind the beloved recent hits Time Bandits, Our Flag Means Death, Reservation Dogs and What We Do in the Shadows.
“Thank you so much to the Producers Guild of America for this incredible honor,” Waititi said in a press release.
“To be included alongside legends and so many I look up to, like the great Norman Lear himself, is truly humbling. My work as a producer has always been about telling stories that reflect the world as it is — messy, diverse, and full of humanity,” Waititi added. “I’m lucky to work with an amazing team of people who help bring these stories to life, and I’m grateful to be able to give a voice to storytellers that deserve to be heard. This award is for all of us — thank you for recognizing the importance of storytelling that connects us.”
Among the past Norman Lear Award honorees are Mindy Kaling, Greg Berlanti, Marta Kauffman, Amy Sherman-Palladio, Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes, Chuck Lorre, J.J. Abrams, Lorne Michaels, Dick Wolf, Jerry Bruckheimer, Gail Berman, Aaron Spelling and David E. Kelley.
Lear — who died last year at the age of 101 — created some of the most popular sitcoms of all time, including All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons and Good Times.