With as many as four shows — Yellowstone, Lioness, Dutton Ranch, and Tulsa King — charting simultaneously on the global Paramount+ viewership charts, Taylor Sheridan is a genre unto himself. The television mogul started out as an actor and then transitioned to screenwriting when he realized that he wasn’t getting the kind of roles he wanted. His career as a writer seemingly peaked with an Oscar nomination for Hell or High Water, but that was only the beginning. Over the subsequent decade, Sheridan established himself as one of the most successful producers in Hollywood, and he did it all out of his Texas ranch, playing entirely by his own rules. In a new profile on Town & Country, Sheridan spoke about his passion for ranching and how he supports it by being one of the hardest-working writers in the business. He also looked back on his early struggles and recalled being homeless at one time.
He said, “I was homeless twice. I lived in my car. Sometimes I’d go to Ojai, just somewhere where I could safely sleep. I did that for six months… I could have decided at any point, ‘I’m going to go get a full-time job, and I’m going to give up this dream’. And I chose to sleep in my car over that…” Sheridan scored a role on Sons of Anarchy, but when he demanded a higher salary for the new season, his character was written off the show instead. This was his breaking point; he then decided to focus on writing stories he cared deeply about, and delivered the critically acclaimed neo-WesternSicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve. As his reputation grew, so did the opportunities that came his way. He turned down several overall deals before agreeing to produce shows for Paramount+, and he did it because he wanted to buy a ranch he couldn’t afford.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Taylor Sheridan Signed an Overall Deal With Paramount Because He Wanted to Buy a Ranch
Sheridan was presented with an opportunity to purchase a 600-acre ranch in Texas for $350 million, but he couldn’t afford it. He explained, “They said, ‘Do you want to pony up about 350 million bucks and take this place over?’ and I said, ‘Well, I’m $330 million short’. So I went and made an overall deal with Paramount to raise the money, brought in some investors, and then I bought it… I had turned down multiple overall deals. I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to work that hard.” But he’s now one of the most prolific creators in the business, with three new shows having debuted this year alone. He also makes it a point to work out of his ranch, comparing his experience in Hollywood to that of Jeremy Renner‘s character in Mayor of Kingstown. “Here’s a guy in a place that he hates, attempting to hold this place together instead of leaving. That, to me, was pretty autobiographical, because there I was stuck in L.A. That’s what that was.”
Sheridan is now getting ready to begin a new creative partnership with NBCUniversal, and is eyeing a return to big-screen writing after a decade in television with the movie F.A.S.T. and a hotly anticipated Call of Duty adaptation. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
2018 – 2024-00-00
Network
Paramount Network
Directors
Stephen Kay, Taylor Sheridan, Christina Alexandra Voros, Guy Ferland, John Dahl
