Sheila Nevins
Sheila Nevins is an executive producer and the former president of HBO Documentary Films and Family for Home Box Office. At HBO, she was responsible for overseeing the development and production of more than 1500 programs for HBO, HBO2 and Cinemax.
As an executive producer or producer, she has received 32 Primetime Emmy® Awards, 35 News and Documentary Emmys® and 42 George Foster Peabody Awards. During her tenure, HBO’s critically acclaimed documentaries have gone on to win 26 Academy Awards®, including “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”, “Citizenfour” (2015), “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1” (2015), “Saving Face” (2012), “Strangers No More” (2011), “Music By Prudence (2010), “Smile Pinki” (2009), “The Blood of Yingzhou District” (2007), “Born Into Brothels” (2005), “Chernobyl Heart” (2004), “Murder on a Sunday Morning” (2002), “King Gimp” (2000), “One Survivor Remembers” (1996), “I Am a Promise” (1994), “Educating Peter” (1993) and “You Don’t Have To Die” (1989). The series “Cinemax Reel Life” has featured a number of award-winning documentaries, including “Big Mama,” winner of the 2001 Academy Award® for Best Short Subject, “The Personals: Improvisations on Romance in the Golden Years” (1999) and “Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien,” an Oscar® winner in 1997.
Nevins has been honored with numerous prestigious career achievement awards, including, most recently, the 2018 Realscreen Legacy Award and the 2017 DOC NYC Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the recipient of the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and is a NYU Tisch School of the Arts Honoree. Other awards include: a Gotham Awards Tribute; a Emmy® Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the art of the documentary, the first time the National Television Academy awarded a Lifetime Achievement recognition to a documentarian; and a Personal Peabody in recognition of her work and ongoing commitment to excellence. Women in Film presented Nevins with a Lucy Award for her outstanding achievements in advancing documentary filmmaking and the National Board of Review presented her with the Humanitarian Award for her contribution to the advancement of social reforms and the promotion of human welfare through film. Nevins has been inducted into Broadcasting & Cable’s Hall of Fame, and has garnered an IDA Career Achievement Award and the New York Women in Film & Television Muse Award for Outstanding Vision & Achievement. She won the first George Foster Peabody Award ever presented to a cable program for “She’s Nobody’s Baby,” which was produced with Ms. Magazine.
Nevins is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
She is the New York Times bestselling author of You Don’t Look Your Age… and Other Fairy Tales, published by Flatiron Books.
Nevins holds a BA from Barnard College and an MFA from Yale University School of Drama in Directing.