Resume

Award-winning Executive Producer and Showrunner with a track record of leading popular premium unscripted and documentary programming. Equally effective as a creative leader shaping tone and story and as an operational executive managing multi-million dollar budgets for productions from inception through multi-season renewals. Known for building franchise-scale series and spin-offs, being an early genre creator, rescuing troubled productions in post, and leading productions in environments that are hard to enter. Track record managing teams of 50+, delivering programming on time and on budget, and creating repeatable systems that sustain multi-season runs and span multiple countries. Elevated cinematic approach with foundations in independent film (Cannes Film Festival) and scripted reenactment direction, blended with a resourceful approach to cost management.

NETFLIX | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC | DISCOVERY | DISNEY/HULU | MTV | HISTORY | A&E | STREAMING

CULTURAL DOCUMENTARIES | RESTRICTED ACCESS (MILITARY, PRISONS, DANGEROUS JOBS) | TRUE CRIME

FAMILY/KIDS | REMOTE LOCATIONS | EXTREME CONDITIONS | UNSCRIPTED ADVENTURE & SURVIVAL

Selected Experience

Lucky 8 TV | Executive Producer / Showrunner | New York, NY | January 2019 – July 2025

Senior creative and operational lead across Lucky 8’s most profitable series. Simultaneously managed up to three productions and 50+ hours of annual programming with a team of 50+ across field and post. Oversaw all phases from greenlight through delivery, including budgets, vendor coordination, legal compliance, and stakeholder relationships across Nat Geo, Disney, and A&E. Designed the company’s fully remote production infrastructure, creating workflows that became Lucky 8’s permanent operating model across its full slate.

TO CATCH A SMUGGLER + TROPICAL TAKE DOWN (Nat Geo / Disney+) | EP / Showrunner | 10 Seasons + Spinoff

• Grew the series from three U.S. airports into a multi-installment global franchise and one of National Geographic’s top- performing unscripted titles.
• Elevated the look to cinema-grade equipment and craft while holding tight budget and schedule discipline across field and post.
• Negotiated and maintained strict legal and compliance standards across DHS, the US Attorney’s office, FDA, and CBP.
• Built standardized production systems (show bibles, call sheets, release logs, Avid templates) adopted as the operational foundation across multiple Lucky 8 productions.
• Launched the spinoff Tropical Take Down, following Air and Marine Operations intercepting cocaine smugglers.
• Extended the franchise beyond linear and SVOD, with YouTube full-episode uploads continuing to draw strong organic viewership.

BOOKED: FIRST DAY IN (A&E) | Executive Producer / Showrunner | 3 Seasons, 26+ Episodes

• Hired to rebuild the series around human interest; delivered three seasons and a 7.3 IMDb rating, with the series streaming on Disney+ and Hulu and paired to what was A&E’s #1 crime/justice franchise.

STORM RISING (Nat Geo) | EP | 8 Episodes

• Led production on a series the network described as “landmark,” deploying crews into active hurricanes, tornadoes, and extreme weather in real time, managing split-second safety decisions and drone filming.

MARINES (Netflix) | Consulting Producer | 4 Episodes

• Brought on to shift tone, pacing, and visual storytelling for a Netflix docuseries embedded with the U.S. Marine Corps that had stalled in post, redirecting the editorial approach.

Truly Original | VP of Current Series / Executive Producer | New York, NY | April 2015 – August 2018

Oversaw creative and editorial direction across the company’s documentary and factual slate, managing showrunners, budgets, and delivery. Hands-on EP on series requiring international production or complex access negotiations.

SWAMP PEOPLE (History) | EP | Seasons 7–9

• Sustained the show’s position as #1 on cable in its time period, building on a franchise that gave History its best-ever premiere (4.2M viewers) and routinely drew 5M+ viewers at peak.

THE HORN (Red Bull TV / Netflix) | Executive Producer | 6 Episodes

• EP on one of the first premium documentary series built specifically for streaming, an internationally produced rescue series shot in Switzerland. Oversaw a team of 35 and cross-border logistics including helicopter-based production at the Matterhorn.

PRETTY LITTLE MAMAS (MTV) | EP | Editorial Lead | Series

• Provided editorial leadership and initial direction; series followed young single mothers. Spinout of the Teen Mom franchise that required nuanced stakeholder management and a new vision.

Original Media | Executive Producer / Showrunner | New York, NY | February 2007 – December 2015

Led the company’s flagship adventure and documentary series across extreme environments, developing visual and editorial approaches that helped define the cable verite documentary genre.

STORM CHASERS (Discovery) | Showrunner | 4 Seasons

• Led this high-performing show (1.2 HH season premiere, 3.2M finale viewers, still streaming on Max, Prime Video, and Apple TV), helping expand Discovery’s high-risk documentary brand. Managed budget of $500K/show and teams of 50+.
• Drove innovation in filming; developed custom camera-mounting systems and visual language for filming inside active tornadoes. Built feature-film-caliber sound design and color grading; integrated scientific tools. Implemented a workflow that allowed editing in the field, shaping narrative arcs in real time.

LOUISIANA LOCKDOWN (Animal Planet) | Showrunner | 8 Episodes

• Led an eight-part verite docuseries inside Angola (Louisiana State Penitentiary) focused on rehabilitation and the human dimensions of incarceration; 8.6 IMDb rating.

DEAD END EXPRESS (Nat Geo / Disney+) | Showrunner | 8 Episodes

• Documentary series highlighting the challenges faced by those delivering critical supplies to isolated regions in the American frontier. Managed simultaneous remote wilderness production across states.

PACIFIC WARRIORS (Discovery) | Showrunner | 6 Episodes

• Rescued a stalled production in post, restructuring footage into a high-stakes narrative following Hawaiian kayak fishermen preserving indigenous cultural traditions; earned a 7.5 IMDb rating.

Additional Experience

BAMAZON (History) | Executive Producer | 8 Episodes | Redline Media

• Salvaged a troubled international production in the Amazon jungle (American miners in search of gold).

SENSING MURDER (Discovery) | Executive Producer | 2 Seasons, 12 Episodes | Granada

• Led a true crime docu-series, overseeing scripted reenactments and interviews that reexamined unsolved murders and cold cases through cinematic recreations; oversaw scripting, cinematography, and art direction. Blended forensic information, case timelines, maps, crime-scene recreations, and family interviews with psychic investigators, creating a trailblazing true crime show.

INTO THE UNKNOWN WITH JOSH BERNSTEIN (Discovery) | Director | Timbuktu Episode

• Directed the Timbuktu episode of Discovery’s international adventure-history series exploring ancient cultures and lost history, leading location production abroad.

NO WOMAN NO CRY | Field Producer | dir. Christy Turlington Burns

• Field production on Christy Turlington Burns’s maternal-health documentary, which premiered at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

A WORLD AWAY (ABC) | Producer | Pilot | True Entertainment

• Produced a cross-cultural documentary pilot, a family co-viewing broadcast show, in which a suburban family from Laguna Beach lived with the Nyangatom people in Ethiopia. Conditions included 140° heat.

ASPEN IDEAS FESTIVAL | Producer | Plum TV

• Produced on-site segments and celebrity and thought leader interviews around Aspen’s premier cultural festival for Emmy- recognized lifestyle network Plum TV, creating content around culture, technology, politics, science, and design for affluent and influencer audiences distributed across national VOD.

NICKELLENNIUM (Nickelodeon) | Producer | 5-Hour Documentary | Linda Schaffer Productions

• Produced the Emmy Award-winning documentary centerpiece of Nickelodeon’s 24-hour millennium broadcast: a youth documentary traveling across countries to capture children’s hopes for the future.

A,B,C… MANHATTAN (INDEPENDENT FILM) | Art Director | Amir Naderi

• Costume designer and art director on an independent feature by Iranian filmmaker Amir Naderi, selected for the Cannes Film Festival.

Arts Education And Youth Programming

• Early career rooted in arts education and youth media: teaching documentary filmmaking to kids in NY; program coordination for the National Dance Institute (1,000-student performances at Madison Square Garden under Jacques d’Amboise), gallery-based arts education for city youth, and developing an educational programming proposal for Global Vision/PBS to adapt the human rights series Rights and Wrongs for schools.

Skills

Unscripted Development, Current Programming, Documentary Series, Creative Executive Leadership, Budget Management ($500K+ per episode), Post Production Supervision, Franchise Development, Talent & Creator Relationships, Stakeholder Management, Cross-functional Collaboration

Awards

Primetime Emmy Award, Outstanding Music and Lyrics, Nickellennium (52nd Primetime Emmy Awards, 2000) RealScreen Award of Excellence, Digital and Branded Content, The Horn (2017) RealScreen Outstanding Achievement, Digital and Branded Content Web Series, The Horn (2017)

Education

Oberlin College | B.A., Art History