| Birth Date: | 20 January 1957 |
| Birth Place: | Bendigo, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | Television writer and producer |
Shane Brennan (born January 20, 1957, in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian television writer and producer, best known as the executive producer of the CBS drama NCIS, as well as the creator of the NCIS spin-off series, .[1]
Brennan's other television credits include Special Squad, The Flying Doctors, All Together Now, King & Maxwell, State Coroner, Stingers, Flipper, , and Summerland. Beginning as a journalist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), by 1981, he had abandoned journalism for television scriptwriting.
From the mid-1990s he worked on American cable shows shot in Australia – of which Flipper is the only named example in the IMDb. That gave him exposure, friends in the U.S. and an agent. As he said, "I started travelling backwards and forwards for about five years – usually four or five times a year, coming for two or three weeks at a time, doing lots and lots of meetings, all at my expense."[2]
In 2003, Brennan became supervising producer for CSI: Miami, and then went on to succeed Donald P. Bellisario as the showrunner on NCIS, handing the day-to-day showrunner operations over to Gary Glasberg after season 8. He then created and became the showrunner of NCIS: Los Angeles, while remaining an executive producer of NCIS until the end of the eleventh season.[2] His last credited episode as executive producer of NCIS was the season 11 finale episode, "Honor Thy Father". In 2011, his production company signed a deal with CBS.[3]
In July 2016, it was announced that Brennan was stepping down as showrunner of NCIS: Los Angeles and that he was handing the reins over to R. Scott Gemmill. In February 2022, it was announced that Brennan would lead a new set in Sydney.[4] [5]
Brennan was elected president of the Australian Writers' Guild in January 2019.[6]
The numbers in writing credits refer to the number of episodes.
| Title | Year | Credited as | Network | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creator | Writer | Executive producer | |||||
| scope=row | Special Squad | 1984–85 | (5) | Network 10 | |||
| scope=row | Prime Time | 1986 | Nine Network | unknown episodes | |||
| scope=row | A Country Practice | 1986–88 | (13) | Seven Network | |||
| scope=row | In Between | 1987 | (2) | SBS | miniseries | ||
| scope=row | The Flying Doctors | 1987–91 | (19) | Nine Network | |||
| scope=row | Embassy | 1990 | ABC | unknown episodes | |||
| scope=row | All Together Now | 1991–93 | (18) | Nine Network | |||
| scope=row | Bony | 1992 | (3) | Seven Network | |||
| scope=row | Ocean Girl | 1994 | (1) | Network 10 | |||
| scope=row | Blue Heelers | 1995 | (1) | Seven Network | |||
| scope=row | The Man from Snowy River | 1995–96 | (7) | Nine Network | |||
| scope=row | State Coroner | 1997–98 | (4) | Network 10 | |||
| scope=row | Good Guys, Bad Guys | 1998 | (1) | Nine Network | |||
| scope=row | Flipper | 1998–2000 | (11) | Syndication | supervising producer (1998–99: 2 episodes) | ||
| scope=row | Witch Hunt | 1999 | Network 10 | Television film, associate producer | |||
| scope=row | Crash Zone | 1999 | (1) | Seven Network | |||
| scope=row | Stingers | 2000–03 | (19) | Nine Network | |||
| scope=row | Tales of the South Seas | 2000 | (1) | Network 10 | |||
| scope=row | The Lost World | 2002 | (1) | Syndication | |||
| scope=row | McLeod's Daughters | 2003 | (1) | Nine Network | |||
| scope=row | 2003–04 | (4) | CBS | supervising producer (24 episodes) | |||
| scope=row | Summerland | 2005 | (2) | The WB | supervising producer (13 episodes) | ||
| scope=row | One Tree Hill | 2006 | The WB | co-executive producer (episode: "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept") | |||
| scope=row | NCIS | 2006–15 | (11) | CBS | consulting producer (2006: 8 episodes), co-executive producer (2006–07: 16 episodes), executive producer (2007–15: 166 episodes) | ||
| scope=row | 2009–2023 | (17) | CBS | ||||
| scope=row | King & Maxwell | 2013 | (2) | TNT | |||
| scope=row | 2023 | Paramount+ Network 10 | |||||