Member Profile

Biography

Nancy Porter has been writing, producing and directing documentaries for over twenty-five years.

nporterheadhot.jpgKnown for her sensitive portrayals of character and for her creative use of dramatic storytelling, she has won numerous awards including a National Emmy, two Cine Gold Eagles, and in 1999, the first Women in Film and Video Image Award for Vision and Excellence.

Earlier in her career, Porter was a staff producer at WGBH-TV until 1992 when she established her own production company. Her films, Houdini, Alone on the Ice, The Wright Stuff, and Amelia Earhart were produced for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Her films for NOVA include Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Will Venice Survive Its Rescue? and her most recent award-winning production, The Most Dangerous Woman in America, about Typhoid Mary which aired on 10/12/04 and was nominated for a national Emmy in 2005 in the category of Best Historical Programming.

Along with Co-Project Director Harriet Reisen, Porter recently produced the documentary film, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, which received development funding from NEH, PBS and NEA and a production grant from NEH in 2005. The film will air on American Masters on PBS on December 28, 2009. The website for this film is louisamayalcott.net. The film will be rebroadcast in the spring of 2018 to coincide with the Masterpiece production of Little Women.

More recently, Porter has produced films for the New England Journal of Medicine and for Atul Gawande\’s company Ariadne. She is currently in development on a project with filmmaker Marty Ostrow.

Films