
Person
David Fanning
Production · Born 1946-05-25 · South Africa
Biography
David Fanning has been executive producer of Frontline , America’s only regularly scheduled investigative documentary series on television, since its first season in 1983. The series has won all the major awards for broadcast journalism, including 34 Emmys, 23 duPont-Columbia University Awards, 12 Peabody Awards, and 11 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards. In 2002, the series was honored with an unprecedented third Gold Baton from duPont-Columbia for its post September 11th coverage, a series of seven hour-long documentaries on the origins and impact of terrorism. In 2003, “A Dangerous Business,” a Frontline / New York Times joint investigation of the cast-iron pipe making industry, won the Pulitzer Prize for public service. Fanning began his filmmaking career as a young journalist in South Africa. He came to the US in 1973 and began producing and directing local and national documentaries for KOCE, a public television station in California. In 1977, Fanning came to WGBH Boston to start the international documentary series WORLD.
Known for

Frontline
Creator

Snitch
Executive Producer

Speaking of Sex
Co-Producer
Facing Death
Executive Producer

America's Great Divide: From Obama to Trump
Executive Producer

The Released
Executive Producer

Mosul
Executive Producer

The Age of AIDS
Executive Producer

Money, Power & Wall Street
Executive Producer

America's Dangerous Trucks
Executive Producer
Filmography
- 2024Documenting Police Use of ForceExecutive Producer
- 2023Inside the Uvalde ResponseExecutive Producer
- 2023America's Dangerous TrucksExecutive Producer
- 2023After Uvalde: Guns, Grief & Texas PoliticsExecutive Producer
- 2022Plot to Overturn the ElectionExecutive Producer
- 2021Taliban TakeoverExecutive Producer
- 2021America After 9/11Executive Producer
- 2021The Healthcare DivideExecutive Producer
- 2021President BidenExecutive Producer
- 2020Once Upon a Time in IraqExecutive Producer
- 2020America's Great Divide: From Obama to TrumpExecutive Producer
- 2019In the Age of AIProducer
- 2019Predator on the ReservationExecutive Producer
- 2018Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi ArabiaWriter
- 2017MosulExecutive Producer
- 2017The Fish on My PlateWriter
- 2017Out of GitmoExecutive Producer
- 2016Terror in EuropeExecutive Producer
- 2014The Rise of ISISExecutive Producer
- 2014To Catch A TraderProducer
- 2013SnitchExecutive Producer
- 2013Outlawed in PakistanExecutive Producer
- 2012The Suicide PlanExecutive Producer
- 2012Dollars and DentistsExecutive Producer
- 2012Money, Power & Wall StreetExecutive Producer
- 2012Nuclear AftershocksExecutive Producer
- 2011Lost in DetentionExecutive Producer
- 2010Facing DeathExecutive Producer
- 2010The Dancing Boys of AfghanistanExecutive Producer
- 2009The ReleasedExecutive Producer
- 2006The Age of AIDSExecutive Producer
- 2006The Tank ManExecutive Producer
- 2005The New AsylumsExecutive Producer
- 2004Beyond BaghdadExecutive Producer
- 2003Burden of InnocenceExecutive Producer
- 2001Speaking of SexCo-Producer
- 2000The Killer at Thurston HighExecutive Producer
- 1990Seven Days in BensonhurstExecutive Producer
- 1987War on NicaraguaExecutive Producer
- 1986Hostage in IranExecutive Producer
- 1983FrontlineCreator
- 1982Frank Terpil: Confessions of a Dangerous ManProducer
- 1981Against Wind and Tide: A Cuban OdysseyWriter
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