Jon Cassar was sitting in his director’s chair on the Oval Office set of 24 during a typically hectic day for this first-time Emmy director nominee. Mr Cassar was filming the first two hours of the Fox drama’s sixth season, and there was an awful lot he had to live up to.

The first two hours of 24, which Fox airs in one night, have become a January event for the show’s rabid fans. He earned his Emmy nomination for last season’s first episode, deemed by critics and fans as one of the most memorable dramatic episodes of the entire TV season.

In its first 12 heart-stopping minutes, two main characters were killed, including the beloved former US President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), and a third was critically injured, forcing Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) out of hiding in the Mojave Desert. It started with a bang and never relented, and now Mr Cassar must find a way to outdo himself.

During the first season, Mr Cassar, who had worked with executive producers Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran in Canada on the TV series La Femme Nikita, was hired to direct two episodes. Then, Hopkins left to continue his film career, and Surnow hired Cassar, a virtual unknown in Hollywood, to become the show’s director-producer.

Mr Cassar, 48, was born in Malta and raised in Canada, where he was a film buff and studied photography before moving on to his film and television career as a camera operator. His first US directing gig was on Baywatch Nights in 1995, but he remained based in Canada until he moved to Los Angeles with his wife and younger son four years ago. Mr Cassar also has a 24-year-old son.