eGuider: Mark Tinker

Director & Executive Producer, Private Practice on ABC

In 1978, Bruce Paltrow offered Tinker the job of Producer on The White Shadow. That pairing led to a decade-long producing relationship highlighted by the long-running medical drama St. Elsewhere. Tinker wrote and directed episodes for both series. In 1990, Tinker began his first working relationship with the inestimable David Milch, producing the newspaper-themed Capital News. Following a fifteen-year run at MTM, Tinker directed several pilots and movies-of-the-week before landing at 20th Century Fox as Executive Producer for Steven Bochco's acclaimed divorce attorney series, Civil Wars. He then Executive Produced L.A. Law's last season before rejoining Milch as Executive Producer of NYPD Blue. After "Blue" concluded its twelve-year run and before transitioning to John From Cincinnati Tinker was Executive Producer and a director of HBO's Deadwood and helmed a pair of season finale episodes of Grey's Anatomy. During his 35-year career in television, Tinker has been nominated for 16 Emmy Awards, taking home four: one for producing (NYPD Blue, 1995) and three for directing (St. Elsewhere, 1993; NYPD Blue, 1997; Brooklyn South, 1998). Mark is currently serving as a director and executive producer on ABC’s Private Practice.