Paul Dowling’s professional education began at the age of 17 when he was offered a scholarship to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City with plans to become a classical musician in a symphony orchestra.
But these years at Juilliard were also the golden years of its Drama Division headed by Academy Award winner John Houseman (The Paper Chase), which had the most impact on his career. Paul’s fellow students included Robin Williams, Mandy Pantinkin (Evita, Homeland), David Ogden Stiers (MASH), Christopher Reeve (Superman), Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), William Hurt (Body Heat), Patty Lapone (Evita) among others.
By the time Paul graduated in 1976 with a Masters Degree in Music, he had already turned his attention to television, securing a job with a small production company in Connecticut.
By 1981, Paul was working as a producer/writer in public television producing health and medical specials. His production of Open Heart Surgery hosted by friend and fellow Juilliard classmate David Ogden Stiers aired on PBS stations in USA and won the Chicago, Houston, and New York International Film Festival Awards as well as the Scripts-Howard Award for outstanding public journalism.
From there, Paul founded Medstar Television which produced science and medical programming and in 1996 created Medical Detectives on TLC (now Forensic Files.) Paul was Executive Producer and writer of all 400 original episodes. Paul believes it was the outstanding narration of Peter Thomas, using the “who done it” murder mystery format, original music, and recreations of the crimes, were the keys.
Forensic Files has the distinction of being the first program having aired first on a cable network (TLC, CourtTV) and then a Broadcast network (NBC) in 2002.
In 2018, the newer version of the series, now called Forensic Files II narrated by Bill Camp, debuted on HLN, international networks and streaming, picking up after the death of the original narrator Peter Thomas, and began its new journey from where the original 400 episodes left off, showcasing the latest of what forensic science can offer.
Recent Tweets from Paul’s Twitter page:
Had a great talk with Rebecca Reisner at https://t.co/iAAYUTEkiO check it out.
— paul dowling (@forensicfiles) February 3, 2020
HLN has already renewed seasons 2 & 3 of FF 2 and are already in motion https://t.co/25M2EySavx
— paul dowling (@forensicfiles) May 26, 2020
I can’t announce yet the new narrator, but he’s tremendous. Peter Thomas, my friend who passed away several years ago, will always be missed.
— paul dowling (@forensicfiles) December 30, 2019