Robyn Semien

Robyn Semien

From left to right, Linda Lutton, Ben Calhoun, Julie Snyder, Robyn Semien and Alex Kotlowitz at the 73rd Annual Peabody Awards. Snyder holds the group's Peabody Award for their work on "Harper High School" episode of This American Life.

Semien (second from right) and "Harper High School" collaborators win Peabody Award
Alma mater UCLA
Occupation Producer
Known for This American Life
Notable work "Harper High School", "Help Wanted"
Awards Peabody Award

Robyn Semien is a television and radio producer who has worked on This American Life in radio, television and video formats.

Early life

Semien attended the University of California, Los Angeles.

Career

Film and television

Semien worked as an editor and producer of film and television, including as an associate editor on the first season of This American Life's television documentary series with Showtime, and then as a producer on the second season in 2008. Semien was also a producer on the 2012 video project, This American Life: One Night Only at BAM.

Radio

Semien joined This American Life's radio team in 2007. She's drawn notice for reporting and producing on a wide array of topics, from card-counting in blackjack,[1] long-haired boys,[2] and her father's car (for the latter, she was the listener-voted favorite in This American Life's 400th-episode competition among the show's producers to see who could develop the best radio story based on an idea pitched by the producer's parents)[3] to race and policing[4] (named to The Atlantic's round-up of "exceptional works of journalism" from 2015),[5] treatment for young, non-offending pedophiles,[6] and school inequality and violence. With Julie Snyder and Ira Glass, Semien co-produced the acclaimed 2013 "Harper High School" two-part episode of This American Life about a Chicago high school where 29 students had been shot in the previous year.[7] The episode made "best of" lists at Slate,[8] The Atlantic,[9] Newsweek,[10] and ProPublica,[11] among others. Shortly after the episode aired, First Lady Michelle Obama visited the school, and she and President Barack Obama invited Harper High students to the White House.[12]

Awards

Semien and collaborators on the "Harper High School" episode won a Peabody Award, with judges calling the work "vivid, unblinking, poignant and sometimes gut-wrenching”;[13] the Dart Center prize for journalism and trauma (“profoundly moving” and “extraordinarily comprehensive and compassionate"); the Jack R. Howard Award for Radio In-Depth coverage;[14] an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award[15] ("truly immersive, and intercut with lively use of sound[; t]hese elements offered valuable insights");[16] the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association;[17] and the Third Coast International Audio Festival's Gold Award for best documentary.[18]

In 2014, Semien, Luke Morrow and Ira Glass won Third Coast International Audio Festival's Radio Impact Award[19] for their story about "on the struggles of young, non-offending pedophiles in their teens and early 20s and what they were doing to get treatment."[20] Semien produced, Morrow reported and Glass edited. For the same piece, Semien, Morrow and Glass were also finalists for The Society of Professional Journalists' Deadline Club 2015 award for best "Radio or Audio Reporting" and third place in the National Headliners Award for best "Radio stations documentary or public affairs."[21]

In 2008, Semien was nominated as producer, with This American Life's television team, for the International Documentary Association's award for best continuing series.[22]

Personal life

Semien is married to Damien Graef,[23] and in April 2013, together the two opened a wine store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, called Bibber & Bell Wine and Spirits.[24] In 2016, Brooklyn Magazine named Bibber & Bell to its list of the borough's best wine shops.[25]

References

  1. ↑ Sturges, Fiona (10 July 2013). "The Week in Radio: It's worth taking a gamble on This American Life". The Independent (UK). Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "The 8 Best 'This American Life' Episodes Of All Time". Clickhole. 21 January 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  3. ↑ Vary, Adam B. (July 11, 2013). "How "This American Life" Made It To Episode 500". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  4. ↑ Singer, Alan (30 March 2015). "Teaching About Policing and Race in America". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  5. ↑ Friedersdorf, Conor (August 11, 2016). "Slightly More Than 100 Exceptional Works of Journalism". The Atlantic. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  6. ↑ "Stories We Loved: Some Favorite Narrative from 2014". Neiman Storyboard. Harvard University. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  7. ↑ Whitaker, Morgan (March 1, 2013). "This American Tragedy: Gun violence at Harper High School". MSNBC. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  8. ↑ Haglund, David (11 July 2013). "Where Do I Start With This American Life?". Slate. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  9. ↑ Friedersdorf, Conor (October 29, 2014). "Podcasts So Good You Want to Binge-Listen". The Atlantic. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  10. ↑ Bindrim, Kira (18 December 2014). "5 Things to Fill the Serial-Sized Hole in Your Life". Newsweek. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  11. ↑ Beckett, Lois (19 September 2014). "The Best Reporting on PTSD in Children Exposed to Violence". ProPublica. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  12. ↑ Lutton, Linda (June 7, 2013). "Harper High School kids meet the president: 'My whole body just got weak'". WBEZ. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  13. ↑ "Harper High School (WBEZ Chicago 91.5)". Peabody Awards. 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  14. ↑ Angelotti, Ellyn (22 December 2014). "Secrets of Prize-Winning Journalism: This American Life's Harper High School". Poynter. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  15. ↑ Zhang, Christian (19 December 2013). "Journalism School announces 2014 duPont-Columbia Award winners". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  16. ↑ ""This American Life: "Harper High School Parts 1 and 2", WBEZ Chicago | 2014 duPont-Columbia Awards Winner". Vimeo. Columbia University Alfred I. duPont Awards. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  17. ↑ "The Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize - Education Writers Association". www.ewa.org. Education Writers Association. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  18. ↑ Miner, Michael (October 21, 2013). "It took two: WBEZ's education reporters receive national honors". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  19. ↑ "Help Wanted". thirdcoastfestival.org. Third Coast International Audio Festival. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  20. ↑ Alim, Teta (November 9, 2014). "Radio Diaries takes gold at Third Coast, and other awards in public media". Current. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  21. ↑ "81st National Headliner Awards winners" (PDF). www.headlinerawards.org. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  22. ↑ "IDA's 2008 IDA Documentary Awards Competition Nominees Announced". Documentary.org. International Documentary Association. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  23. ↑ Teague, Lettie (9 May 2014). "The Ups and Downs of Owning a Wine Store". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  24. ↑ Teague, Lettie (3 May 2013). "Williamsburg Wine Store Stakes Out a Brooklyn Claim". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  25. ↑ Signer, Rachel (16 May 2016). "Get Thirsty: Here Are Brooklyn's Best Wine Shops". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
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