$re = '/<td class="name">\n\s+<a[^>]+>(.*)(?=<\/a>)/';
$str = '<header class="ipl-header">
<div class="ipl-header__content">
<h4 name="producers" id="producers" class="ipl-header__content ipl-list-title">
Produced by
</h4>
</div>
<a class="ipl-header__edit-link" href="https://contribute.imdb.com/updates?update=tt2527336:producers">Edit</a>
</header>
<table class="subpage_data spFirst crew_list">
<tbody>
<tr class="even">
<td class="name">
<a href="/name/nm0009190/?ref_=tt_rv"
>J.J. Abrams</a>
</td>
<td>...</td>
<td>executive producer</td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td class="name">
<a href="/name/nm0027297/?ref_=tt_rv"
>Pippa Anderson</a>
</td>
<td>...</td>
<td>co-producer</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php