Sheila Nevins
Born: 1939-04-06 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
Known For: Production
Biography
Nevins previously ran MTV Documentary Films from 2019 to 2024, and was the President of HBO's Documentary and Family Programming from 2005 - 2018. She earned a bachelor of the arts degree from Barnard Collegeand a master of fine arts degree from Yale University. Nevins produced documentaries before joining HBO in 1979. Nevins has overseen production of nearly 500 documentaries, earning eleven Oscars, 31 Primetime Emmys, 19 Academy Awards, 22 News and Documentary Emmys and 18 George Foster Peabody awards for HBO and one personal George Foster Peabody award. She also received a 2005 News and Documentary Emmy for Lifetime Achievement. She received the 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association. Nevins was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2000. She began her career with the United States Information Service in Washington, DC, which produced and distributed documentary programs around the world. Nevins was a producer for National Education Television's Great Dream Machine, a field producer for an ABC television documentary unit, a writer for Time-Life Films, a producer-writer for the Children's Television Workshop, a producer for CBS-TV's Who's Who program, and president of Spinning Reels, a production company. She joined HBO in 1979 as director of documentary programming. Nevins was named executive vice president, original programming, for HBO and Cinemax in 1999 and President of Documentary and Family in 2005.
Filmography
2026
- Tribeca 25 as Self
- Manhood ... (Executive Producer)
- Ask E. Jean ... (Executive Producer)
- Outposts: Nothing Here is Yours ... (Producer)
2025
- Children No More: Were and Are Gone ... (Producer)
- Cutting Through Rocks ... (Executive Producer)
- Vanishing: A Love Story ... (Executive Producer)
2024
- The ABCs of Book Banning ... (Producer)
- Chasing Roo ... (Executive Producer)
- I Am Ready, Warden ... (Executive Producer)
- Death Without Mercy ... (Executive Producer)
- After the Rain: Putin's Stolen Children Come Home ... (Executive Producer)
- The Path Forward ... (Executive Producer)
2023
- The Eternal Memory ... (Executive Producer)
- Pay or Die ... (Executive Producer)
- Rosie's Theater Kids ... (Producer)
- Beyond the Aggressives: 25 Years Later ... (Executive Producer)
- Last Song from Kabul ... (Executive Producer)
- Birthing a Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney ... (Executive Producer)
- Mourning in Lod ... (Executive Producer)
2022
- The Fire That Took Her ... (Executive Producer)
- Afghan Dreamers ... (Executive Producer)
- Anastasia ... (Executive Producer)
- Last Flight Home ... (Executive Producer)
- Alive in Bronze ... (Executive Producer)
- Omoiyari ... (Executive Producer)
2021
- Going to Pot: The High and Low of It ... (Executive Producer)
- A Life Too Short ... (Executive Producer)
- Lynching Postcards: Token of a Great Day ... (Executive Producer)
2020
- American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself ... (Executive Producer)
- My Father the Mover ... (Executive Producer)
2019
- I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter ... (Executive Producer)
- Liberty: Mother of Exiles ... (Executive Producer)
- Gay Chorus Deep South ... (Executive Producer)
- Finding the Way Home ... (Executive Producer)
- Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America ... (Executive Producer)
- St. Louis Superman ... (Executive Producer)
- 17 Blocks ... (Executive Producer)
2018
- The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling ... (Executive Producer)
- Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind ... (Executive Producer)
- The Emperor's Newest Clothes ... (Screenplay)
- Outside the Bubble: On the Road with Alexandra Pelosi ... (Executive Producer)
- RX: Early Detection - A Cancer Journey with Sandra Lee ... (Executive Producer)
- A Dangerous Son ... (Executive Producer)
- Bleed Out ... (Executive Producer)
- The Number on Great-Grandpa's Arm ... (Executive Producer)
2017
- The Words That Built America ... (Executive Producer)
- Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge ... (Executive Producer)
- 15: A Quinceañera Story ... (Executive Producer)
- Arthur Miller: Writer ... (Executive Producer)
- Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy ... (Executive Producer)
- Traffic Stop ... (Executive Producer)
- Becoming Warren Buffett ... (Executive Producer)
- Mommy Dead and Dearest ... (Executive Producer)
- War Dog: A Soldier's Best Friend ... (Executive Producer)
- Meth Storm ... (Executive Producer)
- Cries from Syria ... (Executive Producer)
- I Am Evidence ... (Executive Producer)
- Warning: This Drug May Kill You ... (Executive Producer)
- Classical Baby: The Lullaby Show ... (Executive Producer)
2016
- Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds ... (Executive Producer)
- Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper ... (Executive Producer)
- Meet the Donors: Does Money Talk? ... (Executive Producer)
- Jim: The James Foley Story ... (Executive Producer)
- Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing ... (Executive Producer)
- Abortion: Stories Women Tell ... (Executive Producer)
- Class Divide ... (Producer)
- Clínica de Migrantes: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness ... (Executive Producer)
- Suited ... (Executive Producer)
- Risky Drinking ... (Executive Producer)
2015
- Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief ... (Executive Producer)
- Cobain: Montage of Heck ... (Executive Producer)
- The Latin Explosion: A New America ... (Executive Producer)
- Everything Is Copy ... (Executive Producer)
- A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness ... (Executive Producer)
- Living With Lincoln ... (Executive Producer)
- Thought Crimes ... (Executive Producer)
2014
- Citizenfour ... (Executive Producer)
- My Depression (The Up and Down and Up of It) ... (Executive Producer)
- All About Ann: Governor Richards of the Lone Star State ... (Executive Producer)
- The Case Against 8 ... (Executive Producer)
- Banksy Does New York ... (Executive Producer)
- Terror at the Mall ... (Executive Producer)
- Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life & Times of Katrina Gilbert ... (Executive Producer)
- Private Violence ... (Executive Producer)
2013
- Six by Sondheim ... (Executive Producer)
- An Apology to Elephants ... (Executive Producer)
- Life According to Sam ... (Executive Producer)
- Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 ... (Executive Producer)
2012
- Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present ... (Executive Producer)
- Don't Divorce Me! Kids' Rules for Parents on Divorce ... (Executive Producer)
- About Face: Supermodels Then and Now ... (Executive Producer)
- Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God ... (Executive Producer)
- The Weight of the Nation ... (Executive Producer)
- First Cousin Once Removed ... (Executive Producer)
- Mondays at Racine ... (Executive Producer)
2011
- Gloria: In Her Own Words ... (Executive Producer)
- There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane ... (Executive Producer)
- Reagan ... (Executive Producer)
- Vito ... (Executive Producer)
- Project Nim ... (Executive Producer)
- The Education of Dee Dee Ricks ... (Executive Producer)
- Hot Coffee ... (Executive Producer)
- Love Crimes Of Kabul ... (Executive Producer)
- The Loving Story ... (Executive Producer)
- Koran by Heart ... (Executive Producer)
- Mann v. Ford ... (Executive Producer)
- No One Dies in Lily Dale
- Journey Into Dyslexia ... (Executive Producer)
2010
- Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking ... (Executive Producer)
- If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise ... (Executive Producer)
- A Family Is a Family Is a Family: A Rosie O'Donnell Celebration ... (Executive Producer)
- Kevorkian ... (Executive Producer)
- Secrets of the Tribe ... (Executive Producer)
- For Neda ... (Executive Producer)
- One Thousand Pictures: RFK's Last Journey ... (Executive Producer)
- I Can't Do This But I CAN Do That: A Film for Families about Learning Differences ... (Executive Producer)
- No Contract, No Cookies: The Stella D'Oro Strike ... (Executive Producer)
- Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County ... (Executive Producer)
2009
- I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale ... (Executive Producer)
- The Alzheimer's Project ... (Executive Producer)
- Studs Terkel: Listening to America ... (Executive Producer)
- The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant ... (Executive Producer)
- The Trials of Ted Haggard ... (Executive Producer)
- The Nine Lives of Marion Barry ... (Executive Producer)
- Katie Morgan's Sex Tips 2: Any More Questions? ... (Executive Producer)
- The Final Inch ... (Executive Producer)
- Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain ... (Executive Producer)
- Sergio ... (Executive Producer)
- Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags ... (Executive Producer)
2008
- Portraits of a Lady ... (Executive Producer)
- Dirty Driving: Thundercars Of Indiana ... (Executive Producer)
- Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery ... (Executive Producer)
- The Boys from Baghdad High ... (Executive Producer)
- Andrew Jenks, Room 335 ... (Executive Producer)
2007
- Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater ... (Executive Producer)
- Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq ... (Executive Producer)
- I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA ... (Executive Producer)
- Katie Morgan's Porn 101 ... (Executive Producer)
- Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi ... (Executive Producer)
2006
- When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts ... (Executive Producer)
- Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters ... (Executive Producer)
- Baghdad ER ... (Executive Producer)
- Wide Awake ... (Executive Producer)
2005
- I Have Tourette's But Tourette's Doesn't Have Me ... (Executive Producer)
- A Rape in a Small Town: The Florence Holway Story ... (Executive Producer)
- Xiara's Song ... (Executive Producer)
2004
- Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable ... (Executive Producer)
- 'Twas the Night - A Holiday Celebration ... (Executive Producer)
- Elaine Stritch at Liberty ... (Executive Producer)
- Beah: A Black Woman Speaks ... (Executive Producer)
- The Hidden Führer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality ... (Executive Producer)
- Looking for Fidel ... (Executive Producer)
- The End ... (Executive Producer)
- Last Letters Home ... (Executive Producer)
2003
- America Undercover ... (Producer)
- Comandante ... (Executive Producer)
- Persona Non Grata ... (Executive Producer)
- The Virtual Corpse ... (Executive Producer)
2002
- Thoth ... (Executive Producer)
- Journeys with George ... (Executive Producer)
- Through a Child's Eyes: September 11, 2001 ... (Executive Producer)
- And Along Came a Spider ... (Executive Producer)
2001
- Southern Comfort ... (Executive Producer)
2000
- The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story ... (Executive Producer)
- The Eyes of Tammy Faye ... (Producer)
- Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks ... (Executive Producer)
- 101 Rent Boys ... (Executive Producer)
- Cancer: Evolution to Revolution ... (Executive Producer)
- Broken Child ... (Producer)
1999
- Goodnight Moon & Other Sleepytime Tales ... (Executive Producer)
- American Hollow ... (Executive Producer)
- The Personals: Improvisations on Romance in the Golden Years ... (Executive Producer)
1998
- Kids Are Punny ... (Executive Producer)
- Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth ... (Executive Producer)
- Life of Crime 2 ... (Executive Producer)
- Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt? ... (Executive Producer)
1997
- 4 Little Girls ... (Executive Producer)
- The Execution Machine: Texas Death Row ... (Executive Producer)
- Twins: The Divided Self ... (Executive Producer)
- Family Video Diaries: Daughter of the Bride ... (Producer)
1996
- The Celluloid Closet ... (Executive Producer)
- Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills ... (Executive Producer)
- Memphis PD: War on the Streets ... (Executive Producer)
- Without Pity: A Film About Abilities ... (Executive Producer)
- Prisoners of the War on Drugs ... (Executive Producer)
1995
- Taxicab Confessions ... (Executive Producer)
- 5 American Handguns - 5 American Kids ... (Executive Producer)
1994
- Lock-Up: The Prisoners of Rikers Island ... (Executive Producer)
1993
- Mob Stories ... (Executive Producer)
1992
- Educating Peter ... (Producer)
- Abortion: Desperate Choices ... (Executive Producer)
1990
- Real Sex ... (Creator)
1987
- How to Raise a Streetsmart Child ... (Executive Producer)