Laurens Grant | Film Producer | Freedom Riders

LAURENS GRANT (Producer/Director) is a multiple Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, and recent recipient of a doctorate in humanities degree from Governors State University in Illinois.

Grant directed the acclaimed documentary Jesse Owens which had both its US and UK premier on PBS’s American Experience series in 2012.

Grant recently won a Peabody award and a Primetime Emmy as the Producer of the award-winning documentary Freedom Riders, which aired on PBS’ American Experience series. The film is the first feature-length documentary to tell the story of the 1961 freedom rides that helped end segregation in the United States. Grant had the honor of working with Director Stanley Nelson on the film.

Laurens Grant has also co-produced two four-hour specials for PBS: Slavery and the Making of America: Seeds of Destruction for which she won an Emmy; and Latin Music USA: The Chicano Wave.

Grant has also produced and directed documentaries for A&E, The History Channel and has directed films in Africa and Latin America.

Before working in documentary, Grant was a foreign correspondent in Latin America. She was the chief correspondent for the Reuters bureau in Panama, Central America, and wrote about Latin American politics and culture for many publications including Newsweek, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Grant is fluent in Spanish and French and received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University the Medill School of Journalism.