Laurens Grant [pronounced La-RENZ] is a 3-time Emmy and Peabody award-winning filmmaker and a Sundance Institute filmmaker fellow. She is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - Documentary Branch [Oscars], and a voter in the Television Academy [Emmys]. She is also a member of the Television Academy’s
KEN BURNS Ken Burns has been making documentary films for over forty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks:
SARAH BOTSTEIN Sarah Botstein has for more than two decades produced some of the most widely-watched and acclaimed documentaries on PBS. Her work, in collaboration with directors Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, includes the award-winning epic ten-part series, The Vietnam War (2017), Prohibition (2011), The War (2007) and Jazz (2001).
DAVID BLISTEIN Writer David Blistein spent 25 years as the Owner and Creative Director of a regional ad agency, after which he began writing non-fiction books and documentaries. He was a writer on the PBS documentary Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (2015) and The Gene (est. 2019), based on books
MIKE WELT Mike Welt has been making documentaries for more than 14 years, covering a wide range of topics in American and world history. He began his documentary career at Lucasfilm, where he wrote and directed films about the history of jazz and the early aviation pioneer, Anthony Fokker, and co-wrote
GEOFFREY C. WARD Geoffrey C. Ward was born in Newark, Ohio, in 1940 and grew up on the south side of Chicago and in New Delhi, India. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1962, with a bachelor’s degree in studio art. He was senior picture editor at Encyclopedia Britannica in Chicago
DAVID SCHMIDT David Schmidt has spent his entire career with Ken Burns and Florentine Films. After an internship with the company, David quickly signed on to work full-time on the seven-part series The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. After four years at the Florentine offices in Walpole, New Hampshire, David moved to New
LYNN NOVICK Lynn Novick has been directing and producing landmark documentary films about American life and culture, history, politics, sports, art, architecture, literature, and music for more than 30 years. The 92 hours of acclaimed PBS programming she has created in collaboration with Ken Burns include Ernest Hemingway, The Vietnam
DAVID MCMAHON David McMahon has been making award-winning documentary films for more than a decade. In 2010, he wrote and produced with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick The Tenth Inning, a two-part, four-hour update to their Emmy Award-winning series, Baseball. With Ken Burns and Sarah Burns, he wrote, produced and directed The
STEPHANIE JENKINS Stephanie Jenkins has worked with Ken Burns and Florentine Films since 2010. She is currently a producer on a new multi-part series about Muhammad Ali. She was the co-producer on East Lake: A Public Housing Story; associate producer for Jackie Robinson; and was the production coordinator on The Central
