Taylor holds an MA from Stanford University where he was a Stegner Fellowship winner in poetry and where he later taught creative writing. Taylor is also a Woodrow Wilson fellowship winner and widely published award winning poet (American Academy of Poets Prize) whose first collection, Florida East Coast Champion, was published by Rolling Stone Press to wide critical acclaim. Renowned English poet and critic Thom Gunn of Berkeley wrote, "Rod Taylor is simply the best poet to turn up in the last fifteen years...." Publisher's Weekly proclaimed, "This is a man who writes like an angel." And National Book Award winning poet, novelist and critic James Dickey (Deliverance) enthusiastically endorsed Rod's work commenting that "Taylor is going to be the salvation of all of us in American Poetry. I will read anything he writes with that growing excitement one is privileged to feel only in the presence of genuine talent." Taylor has given readings of his work at many universities and colleges including Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, San Francisco State, Harvard, NYU, University of Florida, University of Mo., University of Texas and many others.
While still at Stanford University, Taylor moonlighted as a singer in a rock band, becoming a prolific songwriter as well, and writing material for several well known Bay Area rock bands. As his music gained recognition Rod became the object of a bidding war between Columbia's Clive Davis and the legendary David Geffen, with whom he signed his first record contract, thus beginning a music career that produced seven albums, principally under the name Roderick Falconer, as he was first known in the U.K. Collaborating with some of the top talent in the world of rock, Rod's peak musical output spanned more than two decades, continuing well into the period of his immersion in the motion picture and television industry. Many of Taylor's songs have been covered by other artists such as Tricia Yearwood, Jose Feliciano, Linda Ronstadt and other well known artists in the U.S. and Europe. In recent years much of Rod's musical contribution has been in the area of film and television as both a composer and recording artist. Most recently Rod performed his music on the soundtrack of the Warner Brothers television series,Witchblade. His recordings are currently available on Itunes and most other leading internet music sites.
Taylor then began to dabble in story ideas and screenplays for television and film, often with his son Bruce as his sole writing partner. These works sprung forth in scripts for theatrical movies such as Michael Douglas' The Star Chamber and numerous television movie scripts for pilots like Annihilator and the Western-themed movies Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues and Wild Horses. He has developed series pilots and movies for Fox, Universal, Warner Brothers, Spelling Entertainment, Viacom, CBS, NBC, ABC, UPN, HBO, Showtime, MTV, and VH 1. In 1985 he developed the science fiction series Otherworld for CBS which he served as narrator and also executive produced. Though the series failed to even run a full season, Roderick continued to write for television, and began producing and directing some of his scripted projects including the 1998 television movie Inferno.
In 2001, he wrote the scripts for American Outlaws, starring Colin Farrell and the 2007 Jodie Foster film The Brave One which also starred Terrence Howard This compelling and controversial drama topped the U.S. box office as the #1 grossing motion picture in September of 2007. In 2009, Taylor and son Bruce completed work on Open Graves, a contemporary horror film starring Eliza Dushku.
Roderick Taylor is the recipient of numerous motion picture and television awards, including a Golden Spur Award from the WWA for his television film, Wild Horses, two Crystal Reel "Best Director" Awards for his work in both drama and comedy on the Viacom series, Super Force. In 1995 Taylor was awarded a prestigious Genesis Award from the Ark Trust Foundation for his work as executive producer and writer of MTV's critically acclaimed series, Dead at 21. That same year the series was nominated for a Cable Ace Award as Best Series. In 2001 Rod and Bruce received a Prism Award Commendation for their work as writers / executive producers on the VH 1 original movie At Any Cost, starring James Franco. Taylor also wrote and produced all the songs for this original film about the lives and loves of two young brothers in a rock band on the road to stardom, and untimely death (soundtrack album on Reprise Records.)
When not writing for television and film Roderick teaches creative writing at Stanford University.
