Anne Beagan Is Making Her Mark In Hollywood

Television viewers and moviegoers have always been enthralled with stories about crime and punishment across all platforms, now including the digital landscape. And that appetite is not going away any time soon.

Particularly now in this age of the Internet, there is an endless fascination with crime and the desire to solve mysteries. From Dragnet, Adam-12 and Hill Street Blues to Cops, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and True Detective to the current Law & Order, NCIS and FBI franchises on television. From The Maltese Falcon, The Godfather and Goodfellas to The French Connection, Pulp Fiction, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman – and everything in between – in the movies. Every generation is simply enamored by content of a crime related nature.

“These stories, both scripted and true crime, offer the audience a sense of thrill and excitement,” noted Mike Tankel, partner/optimist at the marketing and development firm To Be Continued. “We have fallen in love with not just ‘who done it’ but ‘how did they do it.’ The plots and puzzles create an immersive experience that engages and encourages the audience to participate in the story. And, by delving into topics such as corruption and injustice, they can educate the public about the inner workings of law enforcement, the FBI, and the justice system. ”Who holds the key to unlocking the incredible and compelling stories of the Bureau?

Enter former FBI Special Agent-turned-Producer Anne Beagan. After a 23-year career as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Beagan has now founded her eponymous bi-coastal production company, Anne Beagan Productions. Launched in 2020, the company is dedicated to the production of authentic content supported by Beagan’s unprecedented access and insider status, not only to the FBI and its past and present agents and their stories, but also to a wide-ranging network of subject matter experts, filmmakers, and talent. It all uniquely positions her to produce accurate and authentic stories for worldwide audiences. Along with her investigative experience and her extensive collaborations with the media, Beagan is now producing stories about the FBI, true crime, and a wide-ranging scope of topics.

“At times, overly fictionalized assets available to law enforcement in crime-themed stories have affected what the public and juries expect to see, which has the potential to be dangerous,” said Anne Beagan. “More often than not, FBI Agents are seen as men and women in black clothing who are robotic in their actions. They have no emotion. They have no stress. And they seem to have no problems, which of course is not true. My goal – and my responsibility – is to portray the Bureau and the people within it in both a compelling and authentic fashion.”

“Until Anne Beagan joined the FBI, there had been a major disconnect between the Bureau and the entertainment industry since the J. Edgar Hoover days,” noted Kristy Kotis, Beagan’s former FBI colleague and co-host of FBI True on Paramount+. “Over the past 10 years, Anne has acted as a ‘Rosetta Stone’ for the media and entertainment industry about the Bureau. Her unprecedented access to the cases and people of the FBI put her in a unique position to make sure that the entertainment industry has the correct FBI assets, and they are applied to the correct project.”

From the Beginning

Raised in rural Vermont, Beagan’s early fascination with the criminal justice system stemmed from her grandfather, who was a judge.

“My grandfather would talk at dinner about his work, about the cases he had and the people they involved,” she remembered. “He was making a difference in the world and impacting people’s lives with this truly meaningful job. I wanted to be a lawyer and a judge just like him. Then, when I was 14 years old and a freshman in high school, a female FBI agent was a guest speaker in my class. To me, she was like a real-life super woman, and I wrote to the FBI to inquire about how to become an FBI agent. I put myself onto a path and was accepted into the FBI 10 years later.”

After graduating from Quantico, her first assignment was to the Criminal Division of the New York Field Office (the flagship office of the FBI as well as the largest in the Bureau). As a Special Agent in this division, she investigated some of the most challenging and horrific cases the FBI works, such as crimes against children, human trafficking and civil rights.

Next, Beagan was selected by FBI executive management to ensure coordination was maintained for all FBI logistics and security plans for major events. The FBI has sole jurisdiction over terrorism, where it must coordinate all operational aspects of protecting special events (such as NYE Times Square, Thanksgiving Day Parade, U.S. Tennis Open) with their law enforcement partners at every level.

In addition to her role as a Special Agent, she was selected to work with the curator of the 9/11 Memorial/Museum and Newseum in Washington, D.C. for FBI exhibits within those spaces. It was Beagan’s Role as Entertainment Industry Liaison in the FBI New York office that set the stage for her future work as a producer.

Re-Introducing the World to the FBI

“At that time, it occurred to me that a majority of my social conversations ended with my saying comments such as ‘that’s not accurate,’ ‘the FBI would never do that,’ or ‘an agent would be fired if they did that,’ remembered Beagan. “I realized there was a major disconnect between the entertainment industry and the true FBI.”

“So, I started researching the shows that were in production about the FBI. And I contacted the production teams offering my services to make the portrayal of the Bureau more accurate and authentic,” added Beagan.

As Beagan continued in her role as Entertainment Industry Liaison, the stage was being set for Anne Beagan Productions. Beagan’s resume and experience grew as she consulted and worked on television series such as Mr. Robot, Billions, Madam Secretary, The Following and The Looming Tower; docuseries like American Spies, CNN Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies and Inside the FBI: New York; and films, such as The Wolf of Wall Street, Tower Heist, The Wizard of Lies, The Informer and The Irishman.

Said director Martin Scorsese about his time working with Beagan when she was in the Bureau: “Anne Beagan was essential in connecting us to real-life agents with first-hand experience of the events for the films and was a necessary presence on set advising us on scenes involving FBI agents to give those scenes a feeling of reality and authenticity. Anne had a calm, experienced presence on set. From helping choreograph action involving FBI arrests, to making sure the body language of the action felt right, to training actors how to handle and wear their weapons and uniforms.”

An Idea Becomes Reality

“I got in touch with my old friend Dick Wolf and shared with him my idea for a show based on the FBI,” explained Beagan. “With the support and backing of the FBI, I invited Dick to fly to Washington, D.C., to meet my boss Mike Kortan (the Assistant Director of the FBI Office of Public Affairs). We arranged for a meeting with Director James Comey in his private office where he supported the idea and was fully invested in a series that accurately portrayed the FBI to show the American people who we are and what we do.”

Also born out of this scripted project came the unscripted series Inside the FBI: New York, which aired on the USA Network.

“Beagan negotiated unprecedented access to the professional and personal lives of the agents in the New York office, allowing viewers a rare glimpse into the FBI World,” noted documentarian Marc Levin who was the Executive Producer of Inside the FBI: New York. “Anne’s sense of character and creative vision were invaluable to the series’ success, especially as she knew who to put on camera and what the stories were. This series would not have happened without her.”

Anne Beagan Productions is Established

“After FBI premiered on CBS, I looked at that as the impetus to continue sharing with the world who the real FBI is. So, following retirement, my mission continued,” noted Beagan, who launched Anne Beagan Productions in 2020.

The first official project under the Anne Beagan Productions banner was 26th Street Garage: The FBI’s Untold Story of 9/11 in 2021. The documentary, streaming on Paramount+, is the untold story about how Beagan and her colleagues, after evacuating their offices just blocks from Ground Zero, turned their greasy automotive garage in New York City into the command post on 9/11 to begin that massive investigative undertaking.

“People are surprised to learn how that all happened during a time of utter chaos for our nation,” noted Beagan.

The documentary indirectly led to the original docuseries, FBI True, now in season two and streaming on Paramount+. The series features never-before-seen surveillance footage, interrogations with hostage takers and terrorists, and personal photos from agents’ collections. Each episode focuses on a specific case and is highlighted by insider conversations between law enforcement colleagues speaking frankly about the triumphs, tragedies and real truths of their jobs.

“Anne Beagan has been a critical factor in the success of FBI True,” said Susan Zirinsky, President, See It Now Studios, one of the production companies behind the docuseries. “Anne convinced so many of the retired agents, with remarkable life and death stories, to participate in this new venture. She got the agents to share chilling stories they have never told anyone.”

“As people learn about my production company, retired FBI Agents from across the nation have reached out to me to make me aware of untold stories,” said Beagan. “For me, that is a great honor – to be able to bring these stories to light.”