With some series, it's almost inevitable that a cast member or two will eventually start developing ideas for the show as far as writing and/or directing episodes go, however, in many cases, some cast members will go even further than that, and take on the added additional responsibility of actually producing the show.
This usually will happen in one of two ways: either a certain cast member will be given the job of producing the series simply as posturing and to make them happy (this is usually common when said cast member is the lead, if not one of the leads); or the credit is because the cast member is also actively involved in the writing process, and many staff writers on shows nowadays are given producer credits, rather than writer credits.
This is particularly common among Long Runners.
Related to Actor-Inspired Element; see also Written by Cast Member and Directed by Cast Member.
Examples:
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Films — Live-Action
- Both Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum executive produce both 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street, of which they both headline as stars.
- The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle: In addition to playing live action Fearless Leader, Robert de Niro also produced (and provided partial financing) the movie because he was such a big fan of the original cartoon series.
- Sally Kellerman co-produced Boris & Natasha (based on Rocky And Bullwinkle, focusing on the bad guys) as well as played Natasha.
- Jim Carrey served as a producer on Bruce Almighty.
- Shortly before Charlie's Angels (2000) went into full-scale production, Drew Barrymore bought the rights to the film so that she could produce it through her Flower Films production company.
- Dianna Agron's little pet project A Fuchsia Elephant, which she produced, wrote, directed, and starred in.
- Brad Pitt is not only one of the leads of Fury (2014), but also executive produced it as well.
- Sofía Vergara and Reese Witherspoon headline Hot Pursuit, Sofia serves as one of the film's executive producers while Reese is one of the producers.
- Angelina Jolie starred as the title character of Maleficent, of which she also served as an executive producer.
- Brittany Snow was executive producer and lead for Would You Rather.
- Warren Beatty produced Bonnie and Clyde and was instrumental in getting it made (legend has it that he got on his knees and begged Jack L. Warner to make it). He also produced Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds, Ishtar, Dick Tracy, Bugsy, Love Affair, Bulworth and Rules Dont Apply.
- Taken to extremes in The Room, where Tommy Wiseau was the star and producer, along with also being the director and the writer. As he clearly doesn't know how to do any of these things, it goes about as well as you would expect.
Live-Action TV
- America's Funniest Home Videos. A few seasons into his tenure as host of the show, Tom Bergeron began receiving a producer credit, which later evolved into a senior producer credit.
- Bewitched. Although never properly credited as a producer, Elizabeth Montgomery was given a lot more creative control of the series beginning in the sixth season as part of a deal with ABC to renew the series for additional three seasons, after many of the cast and crew felt the show didn't need to continue after wrapping up its fifth season.
- Bones stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel both became producers over the course of the series.
- Charmed (1998): Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano both became producers around season four.
- CSI. William Petersen served in the capacities of producer, supervising producer, co-executive producer and executive producer for various lengths of time throughout the series' entire 15-year run.
- CSI: NY. Gary Sinise served as producer from the beginning of season 2 until the series' end, eight seasons later.
- The Drew Carey Show. After the first three seasons, Drew Carey eventually became one of the executive producers for the remainder of the series' run.
- Everybody Loves Raymond. Star Ray Romano was made a producer on the show from the get-go, since the basic format was based almost entirely on his stand-up comedy.
- In the Heat of the Night lead Carroll O'Conner also served as one of the series' executive producers.
- M*A*S*H. Alan Alda slowly gravitated towards a position behind the scenes on the series, mostly due to a strong interest in being behind the camera as well as in front; after getting more involved with writing scripts and later directing more and more episodes, Alda became a part of the production staff by the show's sixth season, including personally consulting with previously departed co-creator/producer, Gene Reynolds on a weekly basis for the rest of the series' run.
- Matthew Perry is starring in CBS's remake of The Odd Couple as Oscar Maddison, and as such, the network has also appointed him to executive produce it as well.
- Seinfeld. Given that the show was based entirely on Jerry Seinfeld's stand-up career, and an underlying theme of how comedians get their material, NBC appointed Seinfeld himself as a producer, and later still, when co-creator and executive producer, Larry David, walked away from the series after its seventh season, Seinfeld was promoted to executive producer.
- From season 2 on, The Sinner was executive-produced by Jessica Biel, who was the series' female lead in the first season, but who played no on-camera role in later seasons.
- Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Given the success of The Drew Carey Show, as well as their clout, both Drew Carey and Ryan Stiles were executive producers on the original U.S. version of show. Later still, with the revival of the U.S. version, all three of the regular performers (Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady) each receive individual executive producer credits.
- World's Dumbest.... Among the regular commentators on the show is Family Guy writer, Ted Jessup, who eventually began serving as this show's consulting producer, though due his involvement with Family Guy taking up more of his time, that position was eventually handed over to fellow commentator, Mike Trainor, who began appearing more regularly on the show.
- Growing Pains is infamous for how this can go wrong. After his conversion to Christianity, Kirk Cameron went full Moral Guardian, objecting to anything he considered too sexual (which was a lot), getting two of his co-stars fired: one for posing naked in Playboy and the other for being an agent of satan. He straight-up referred to three executives as "pornographers" (he was right on only one account) and forced the three to quit because he was that insufferable.
- Hawaii Five-0 star Alex O'Loughlin, who plays main character Steve McGarrett, becomes a producer beginning season ten.
Pro Wrestling
- All Elite Wrestling Dynamite, as of Christmas 2019, lists six current performers as various producers on the show.
- Professional Wrestling has historically used various wrestlers as "Head Booker" which is the Wrestling equivalent of the Executive Producer with various "Agents" who are usually semi-retired wrestlers or other talent as the equivalent of Producer for individual house shows and secondary TV programs.
- Triple H and Mickey James are both on-screen talent listed as Producers on various Wrestling/WWE TV Programs.
Puppet Shows
- Sesame Street:
- A variation of this. Outside from occasionally directing a Muppet insert, Jim Henson was never involved with the actual production (contrary to popular belief); in 1989, however, when the show celebrated its 20th anniversary, Henson wanted to express his gratitude and appreciation to CTW (now Sesame Workshop) for being a part of the show for all those years, by producing an anniversary special through his then-Henson Associates company.
- During the 2000s, Kevin Clash, who was already directing for the show more frequently, began to executive produce Elmo-related Sesame projects, such as the recurring Elmo's World segments on the show, as well as Elmo-driven DVDs and specials; this was mostly because of the impact that Clash had on turning Elmo into the character he's known as today.
