| Janet L. Tobias | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, producer, and screenwriter |
| Known for | No Place On Earth |
| Website | Sierra/Tango Productions |
Janet Tobias is a media executive specializing in healthcare as well as an Emmy Award-winning director, producer, and writer.
She directed Fauci, and also No Place On Earth in 2012, a docudrama about two caves in Ukraine in which three dozen Jews escaping the Holocaust successfully hid for a total of 511 days. Her screenplay, co-written with Paul Laikin, was a finalist for the 2014 Award for Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.
More recently, Tobias directed Unseen Enemy, a documentary on the threat of pandemics in the 21st century which initially aired on CNN in 2017. 2018 saw the release of her documentary Memory Games, a glimpse into the brain's vast potential for memorization through the eyes of four memory competition participants.
Career
After growing up in Indiana, graduating from Yale University, and working in radio news, Tobias started her television career at CBS's 60 Minutes as Diane Sawyer's associate producer. She then moved to ABC's Prime Time Live, where she produced, wrote, and directed both domestic and international stories ranging from a case study of organ donation to a portrait of the Kuwaiti royal family after the Gulf War.
In 1992, Tobias moved to Dateline NBC to work as a national producer, supervising pieces on medical ethics and the home health care industry. Following Dateline, she worked as an editorial producer of ABC News' Law and Justice unit where she developed stories for Nightline, 20/20, and World News Tonight; she was also the executive producer for PBS's Emmy Award-winning program Life 360.
In 2001, she founded a television and film production company called Sierra/Tango Productions with former ABC anchor Forrest Sawyer. Sierra/Tango has produced over a dozen documentaries on social issues ranging from medical ethics to the life of teenagers in America. Tobias is also the founder of Ikana Health, which focuses on the mobile web, social media and video as it relates to healthcare information and improving patient outcomes.
In 2009, Tobias was appointed to the Forum on Drug Discovery, Development and Translation of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences, serving two terms until 2015. In 2010, she became an adjunct professor of medicine in the Department of Health Evidence & Policy at Mount Sinai School of Medicine where she works on preventing diabetes in minority populations. In 2014, she became a research professor of global public health in New York University's College of Global Public Health.
Ms. Tobias is a member of the Writers Guild of America and currently resides in New York City.
Filmography
The following are among Tobias's commercial films:
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Frontline (Juvenile Justice) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2012 | No Place On Earth | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2017 | CNN: Unseen Enemy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2018 | Memory Games | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2021 | Fauci | Yes | Yes | No |
Executive producer
- Y2K: The Winter of Our Disconnect (1999)
- PBS: Life 360 series (2001-2002)
- MSNBC Investigates: Nature's Weapon: The Hidden Plague (2003)
- MSNBC Reports: The Next War (2003)
- MSNBC: Battle for America's Schools (2003)
- History Channel: Voices of Civil Rights (2005)
Senior producer
- Nightline (2000)
Awards
- National Emmy and American Bar Association awards
- 2 Cine Golden Eagles'
- The George Foster Peabody Award
- 2 Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism
- National Headliner Award
- Sigma Delta Chi Award
- Honorable mention Robert F. Kennedy Journalism and Overseas Press Awards
- Hampton's International Film Festival Audience Award
References
- Chariton, Jordan. "CNN and Sierra Tango Productions Partner on Global Influenza Documentary". The Wrap.
- "WGA Awards 2014: Complete list of winners and nominees". LATimes.com. January 30, 2014. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014.
- Pederson, Erik. "CNN Films' 2016 Slate Includes Pics On Steve Jobs, BASE Jumping, Pathogens". Deadline. Archived from the original on March 13, 2015.
- Krajeski, Justin. "TIFF Futures: 'No Place On Earth' Director Janet Tobias On Telling "One of the Best Stories I Ever Heard"". Indiewire.
- ^ "Filmmakers". No Place On Earth. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
- "PBS Breaks Out New Programming Genre With "Life 360" on Friday Nights at 9:00 P.M." PBS Press Release. July 27, 2001. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
- "About Section". Sierra Tango Productions. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
- ^ "About Section". Ikana Health + Media. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
- "NYU GIPH Faculty". NYU Global Institute of Public Health. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
- "Janet Tobias". IMDB.
- "Immediate Release: 23rd Annual News & Documentary Emmy Award Winners" (PDF). Emmy Online. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-03-27.
- "Janet Tobias - Awards". IMDB.