Berkeley Journalism Alumni Nominated for Emmy Awards in News and Doc

Ten Berkeley Journalism alumni are among the “exceptional journalists and documentarians” named nominees in the News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

From top left: Violet Du Feng, Lauren Rosenfeld Capps, Rachel de Leon, Jeffrey Plunkett, Emily Taguchi, Sarah Cahlan and Jason Spingarn-Koff.

Violet Du Feng (’04) is nominated for Best Documentary for Independent Lens’ Hidden Letters (PBS), which reveals how modern women in China are working to maintain the tradition of Nüshu, a secret calligraphy language used to communicate during a time when many women were kept from literacy.

Rachel de Leon’s (’14) “Victim/Suspect” (Netflix) is nominated for best Investigative Documentary. The film is the result of a four-year investigation and features a first-of-its-kind case study of investigations in which police charged self-reporting sexual assault and rape victims with a crime. Elena Neale-Sacks (’22), Betty Márquez Rosales (’20) and Skyler Glover (’21) were researchers on the documentary. Myah Overstreet (’23) and Buddy Terry (’23) were production assistants on local shoots.

Lauren Rosenfeld Capps (’12) produced “Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court” (Showtime), nominated for best Politics & Government Documentary. The film takes an in-depth look at Supreme Court cases that altered the state of the union.

Jeffrey Plunkett (’05) is the showrunner and an executive producer of “Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller,” (National Geographic) which received a stunning 20 nominations. He is also the executive producer of “Science Fair the Series” (National Geographic) nominated for Outstanding Science And Technology Documentary. The film looks at nine high schoolers from around the globe navigate rivalries, setbacks and hormones on their journey to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair. Luisa Conlon (’17) was a cinematographer on the film.

Emily Taguchi (’06) was supervising producer on “Without Roe: The New Abortion Landscape” (CNN), a verité documentary chronicling those at the frontlines, nominated for Outstanding Health Or Medical Coverage. The hour-long documentary for The Whole Story, the weekly documentary program hosted by Anderson Cooper, was produced by a women-led team of journalists and filmmakers.

Sarah Cahlan (‘19) reported and edited, “Failure at the Fence,” (PBS FRONTLINE | The Washington Post) nominated for an Emmy in the news category for Outstanding Research and Outstanding Editing. The film examines how Hamas breached Israel’s security barrier on Oct. 7.

Tommy Nguyen (‘05) was the producer of “Every Body” (NBC News Studios/Focus Features) nominated for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. “Every Body” is a revelatory investigation that tells the stories of three intersex individuals who have moved from childhoods marked by shame, secrecy, and non-consensual surgeries to thriving adulthoods. Woven into the story is a stranger-than-fiction case of medical abuse, featuring exclusive footage from the NBC News archives, which helps explain the modern-day treatment of intersex people.

Jason Fine (’90), SVP of Rolling Stone Films was an executive producer of “Little Richard: I Am Everything” nominated for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary. Produced by Bungalow Media + Entertainment for CNN Films and HBO Max, in association with Rolling Stone Films, director Lisa Cortés’ Sundance opening night documentary LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman.

Jason Spingarn-Koff (’01) was the executive producer on “Cosmic Time Machine” (Netflix), nominated for Outstanding Science And Technology Documentary. With unique access behind-the-scenes to NASA’s ambitious mission to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, the film follows a team of engineers and scientists as they take the next giant leap in our quest to understand the universe.

Bret Sigler (’03) was the editor of  Scripps News’ Emmy-award winning documentary series, “In Real Life,” which received a nomination in the outstanding science and technology coverage category for its documentary “Voices of Nature.” The documentary reveals how artificial intelligence technology is opening up new possibilities for scientists communicating with animals — from sending messages to elephants on the plains of Kenya to mimicking honey bees in Germany and bat sounds in Israel. The documentary captures the first-ever on-camera use of technology developed to communicate with elephants, with the crew accompanying a research team in the field in Kenya.

The 45th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards honor programming content from more than 2200 submissions that originally premiered in calendar-year 2023, judged by a pool of more than 980 peer professionals from across the television and streaming/digital media news and documentary industry.

The awards will be presented in two ceremonies in New York, September 25 and 26.

By Marlena Telvick