Bio
Joshua Bennett is an Emmy Award winning producer/director with twenty years experience working in film and television production. Recent projects he’s directed and produced include the critically acclaimed, IDA Award winning 5-part HBO documentary series Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children and Hostages, A 4-part series on the Iran Hostage Crisis for HBO, which was nominated for three Emmy Awards and won the Emmy for Best historical documentary series, Where is Private Dulaney a 3-part documentary series for Hulu, and the 8-part series Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories with David Rubenstein for PBS.
Other recent projects include the feature documentary Tight Rope, an award-winning, multi-film initiative on the global Refugee Crisis titled Humanity On the Move, an 8 hour CNN Original Series Soundtracks: The Songs that Made History, produced in partnership with Dwayne Johnson, the 8-hour PBS event television series Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music, the award-winning 20-short film web and social media initiative We The Voters, produced in partnership with Vulcan Productions. Previously, he was the Producer of two landmark 4-hour primetime series for PBS and global distribution, with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn: Half the Sky, which received The Television Academy Honors Award and A Path Appears. He also developed and served as Executive Producer of global, multi-platform media impact campaigns for USAID based on Half the Sky, leading teams in India and Nairobi and creating campaigns in support of Women’s empowerment which reached billions of impressions. He has presented at the UN General Assembly, The Concordia Summit, The Global Philanthropy Forum and was a featured speaker on media and impact at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul Turkey
Projects he’s produced have won The Television Academy Honors Award, The Peabody Award, The African-American Film Critics’ Association award, The Cine Golden Eagle Award for best documentary, and multiple Emmy and Real Screen awards. His short film Los Comandos was shortlisted for an Academy award in 2018. It was also nominated by the IDA for Best documentary short, and his feature length documentary Sky and Ground was nominated for best documentary feature. In 2017, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for best Music Documentary. He has produced shoots in over 35 countries and on all 7 continents.
He is a passionate advocate for the power of media to inspire positive social change and is committed to telling stories that give voice to people who are actively working to support vulnerable populations across the globe.
Full Credits
2023 Where is Private Dulaney? – Executive Producer and Director
2022 Hostages – Executive Producer and Director
2020 Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children – Executive Producer and Director
2020 Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope – Executive Producer and co-director
2018 Humanity On the Move – Creator and Executive Producer
2018 Drop to Zero – Executive Producer
2018 Los Comandos — Director and Producer
2017 Sky and Ground — Director and Producer
2017 Toward the North — Director and Producer
2017 Soundtracks – Executive Producer
2016 We the Voters (short film Series) — Executive Producer
2016 Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music (TV Mini-Series documentary) — Producer
2016 WEVOLVE – Executive Producer and Director
2015 A Path Appears (TV Movie documentary) — Series Producer
2013 Half the Sky Global Engagement Campaign – Executive Producer
2012 Half the Sky (Documentary) — Producer
2012 Independent Lens (TV Series documentary) — Producer – 1 episode
2012 Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide — Producer
2010 Circus (TV Series documentary) — Line Producer
2008 Nimrod Nation – Line Producer
2006 Carrier- Associate Producer
Awards
2018
Santa Barbara ACLU Stand up Award for Social Documentary “Sky and Ground”
Jonathan Daniels Award for Artistic Excellence and Social Awareness “Sky and Ground”
Grammy Award Nomination, best Music film/series “Soundbreaking” (Producer)
Hollywood Shorts/ Indiefest, Best of Fest “Los Comandos”
We the Voters 60th CINE Golden Eagle Award, Scripted Content- Series/Mini Series “We The Voters ( Executive Producer)
We The Voters, Best of Show IndieFest Awards, 19 awards of excellence “We The Voters”- documentary short, animation, Educational, instructional excellence, art direction, (Executive Producer)
CIndy Awards 8 Gold and 5 Silver awards, best writing, visual effects, editing and Humanities work “We The Voters (Executive Producer)
News and Doc emmy Nomintation best music editing, “Soundbreaking (Producer)
Webby Award, Honoree “Soundbreaking”- Social- Music campaign ( Producer)
2017
Austin Film Festival best documentary short “Los Comandos” (director/producer)
News and Doc emmy Nomintation best music editing, “Soundbreaking (Producer)
Webby Award, Honoree “Soundbreaking”- Social- Music campaign ( Producer)
2016
Indiefest Best of Show “A Path Appears” (Series Producer)
2013
Realscreen Awards Award of Excellence in the Non-Fiction category, Half The Sky (producer)
Realsceeen award for Best Non-Fiction: Social/Current Affairs< Half the Sky ( Producer)
Realscreen Award for Casti2013 ng in Documentary Series, Half the Sky ( Producer)
Realscreen Award best music in documentary series, Half the Sky, (Producer)
2012
Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Academy Honors Award (Producer)
2008
Nimrod Nation, George Foster Peabody Award ([Producer)
2006
Carrier, Primetime Emmy Award, Cinematography in Documentary Series (additional camera)
Speaking Engagements
2018
UN General Assembly, 4th Multi-stakeholder planning meeting on Global Migration Policy
2017
MSNBC, Featured Guest, “Morning Joe”, Conversation on Refugees and Migration
2016
UN World Humanitarian Summit, Keynote Speaker. Media as a Tool for Advocacy
UN FOUNDATION, Panelist, “Changing the Paradigm” , Public forum on Refugees and migration
National Press Club, DC ” Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music”.
Concordia Summit, Featured Speaker, Private sector forum on Migration and Refugees
2015
USAID Kenya, Event, empowering women through Media interventions, Nairobi, Kenya- Keynote Speaker
2013
Fox News, Feautured guest, Empowerment of women Worldwide “Half the Sky”