Julian Farino (born 12 December 1965) is an English film and television producer and director. He is most well-known for directing much of the first three seasons of the HBO series Entourage.
Farino was born and raised in London and educated at Cambridge University. He became an editor of The Guinness Book of Records after graduating, and later appeared as a co-presenter on Record Breakers alongside Fiona Kennedy and Roy Castle.[1]
After a period as a television researcher at Granada Television, he began his directing career there making a sequence of observational films about drag queens, young classical musicians, children's entertainers, and boxers. They Call Us Nutters was a portrait of life on a ward of Ashworth Maximum Security Hospital, and A Winter's Tale described life in the coldest inhabited place on earth, Oymyakon in Eastern Siberia.
In 2000 he directed 7Up 2000, a continuation of the multi-award winning documentary series, featuring 7-year-olds from all over Britain - a project that continued with 14 Up in 2007. His film drama in the UK includes an adaptation of Charles Dickens's Our Mutual Friend, which won four BAFTAs including Best Drama; Bob and Rose, a romantic comedy which won Best Series at The British Comedy Awards; and Flesh and Blood, starring Christopher Eccleston, which won the Prix Europa for Best Film. Other credits in the UK include The Last Yellow for BBC Films starring Samantha Morton and Mark Addy, and Byron, a biopic of the romantic poet, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Vanessa Redgrave.
Farino went to the United States in 2004 to work for HBO, and directed the majority of episodes of the first three seasons of Entourage. He stayed to work on the series Big Love and Rome, and has received four Emmy and three DGA nominations.'[2] He was executive producer and director of the HBO television show How to Make It in America for its two series.[3] For Entourage: The Sundance Kids he was nominated in category Best Directing for a Comedy.[4] In 2010, Farino directed The Oranges starring Hugh Laurie and Leighton Meester, his first feature film in the US. The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released on 5 October 2012.
Previously based in Los Angeles, Farino lives in England with his wife, actress Branka Katić and their two sons, Louis and Joe.