Carter Bays

Carter Loard Bays (born August 12, 1975) is an American author, composer and television showrunner.

Bays co-created the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother where he served as showrunner, writer and executive producer for all nine seasons.

Bays wrote the novel, The Mutual Friend (2022, Dutton Books).

Bays was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

His father, James C. Bays, is a retired corporate lawyer, and his mother, Martha Bays, is a minister in the United Church of Christ.

While at Shaker Heights High School, Bays' play Five Visits From Mr. Whitcomb was selected for the Stephen Sondheim founded Young Playwrights Inc. 1993 Young Playwrights Festival produced at Playwrights Horizon's in New York City.

Bays studied English at Wesleyan University, where he met bandmate Craig Thomas who would later become his writing partner and his co-creator for How I Met Your Mother.

Bays and Thomas co-founded the band The Solids, who perform the theme song to How I Met Your Mother, "Hey Beautiful".

as well as "Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit."

In the summer of 1996, Bays and Thomas worked as interns in the Development department of MTV.

After graduating from Wesleyan in 1997, Bays and Craig Thomas went on to write for the Late Show With David Letterman.

He and Thomas then created How I Met Your Mother, which ran from 2005-2014.

Bays also wrote for American Dad!, Quintuplets Oliver Beene.

and co-created Fox's The Goodwin Games.

In 2022, Bays served as executive producer on Hulu's How I Met Your Father, starring Hilary Duff.

The show is created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger.

Carter's debut novel, The Mutual Friend, was published June 7, 2022, through Dutton Books,.

Bays lives in New York City with his wife, Denise Cox Bays, and their three children.

One of his daughters appeared at the end of "Trilogy Time", the other one at the end of "Unpause".

Bays teaches a Master Class in TV Writing at Columbia University, and is an Associate Fellow at Davenport College at Yale University.

He also serves on the board of the Armed Services Arts Partnership, which helps veterans return to civilian life through comedy and the arts.