David Shankbone · CC BY 3.0

A television writer who created and ran Mad Men, a drama about a 1960s advertising agency that became one of the most acclaimed series of its era, after cutting his teeth as a writer and producer on The Sopranos. He won nine Primetime Emmy Awards across the two shows, and Mad Men took the award for Outstanding Drama Series four years running; Time named him one of its 100 most influential people in 2011.