David Fanning

Artist, Brainstormer, Designer, Filmmaker, Foodie, Global soul, Journalist, Producer, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Hmm well, here's the short official bio... David Fanning is the founder and Executive Producer of FRONTLINE, the longest running investigative documentary series on American television. Launched in 1983 on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the series has won all of the major awards for broadcast journalism: 45 Emmys, 15 Peabody Awards, 11 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and 27 duPont-Columbia University Awards, including three Gold Batons for its “total contribution to the world of exceptional televisionâ€Â. Fanning began his career as a journalist and filmmaker in his native South Africa. After a brief stint at the BBC, he began working in US public television in 1973 and created the international documentary series “World†in 1977 at WGBH in Boston. That became the basis for FRONTLINE. Under his guidance, FRONTLINE was an early adopter of the internet, in 1995 building some of the first deep content websites in history, streaming video of its programs by 2000, and presently being reconfigured for a multi-platform future. In 2010 Fanning was honored with the Ralph Lowell Award, public television's most prestigious award, recognizing his "outstanding contributions" to the field, and with the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism by the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. In 2004, David Fanning received the Columbia University Journalism Award, recognizing “Singular journalistic performance in the public interest… David Fanning and his signature program, FRONTLINE, have turned a commitment to probing journalism and public service into an enduring national conversation, without which far too many important issues would remain veiled or hidden altogether.†In 2013 The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gave its Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award for News and Documentary to David Fanning.