Raney Aronson-Rath produces Frontline, PBS's flagship investigative journalism series. She has been internationally recognized for her work to expand the PBS series' original investigative journalism and directs the editorial development and execution of the series. Aronson-Rath joined Frontline in 2007 as a senior producer. She was named deputy executive producer by David Fanning, the series’ founder, in 2012, and then became executive producer in 2015.
Education Aronson-Rath earned a bachelor's degree in South Asian studies and history from the University of Wisconsin. She received her master's from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Career Early in her professional life, Aronson-Rath worked in Taipei, Taiwan, for a small, English-language daily newspaper, The China Post, where she decided to commit to a career in journalism. Later, Aronson-Rath developed and managed more than a dozen journalistic partnerships with news outlets, including ProPublica, Marketplace, PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, CBC Television, and Univision.
Moving to TV news production, Aronson-Rath worked on award-winning series at ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, and MSNBC. She also produced, directed, and wrote several award-winning Frontline films, including News War, The Last Abortion Clinic, and The Jesus Factor.
Aronson-Rath officially joined Frontline in 2007. In 2012, she was named Deputy Editor of Frontline by David Fanning, and Executive Producer in 2015, the position she holds today. She has earned new funding to expand Frontline’s investigative capacity, including the launch of a YouTube channel with original content, a commitment to interactive projects, as well as a film initiative focused on accountability for institutions and public officials called the Transparency Project.
Aronson-Rath currently serves on the Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy, the Board of Visitors for Columbia University’s Journalism school, and the advisory board of Columbia Global Reports.
She has received numerous accolades for producing the documentary feature film 20 Days in Mariupol, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and won the Best Documentary Feature Award at the 96th Academy Awards. At Sundance, the film won the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition. It was also selected as the Ukrainian submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, but was not ultimately nominated in this category.
Awards and honors
Aronson-Rath was a 2014-2015 Fellow at the MIT Open Doc Lab. Aronson-Rath has been a speaker at the Skoll World Forum, the Aspens Ideas Summit, The National Scholastic Press Association's High School Journalism Convention, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and The Power of Narrative Journalism Conference.
Since 2015, Frontline has won many accolades under her direction, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award, IRE Awards, The George Foster Peabody Award, Peabody-Facebook Futures of Media Award, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Overseas Press Club Awards, The Scripps Howard Award, and Writer's Guild Awards, and the 2019 dupont-Columbia Gold Baton award, among others.
She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2024.
Academy Awards Year Category Work Result 2024Best Documentary Feature Film20 Days in Mariupol
Emmy Awards Year Category Work Result News & Documentary Emmy Awards2009Outstanding Investigative Journalism - Long FormFrontline 2010Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Investigative Journalism - Long Form Frontline 2011Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Informational Programming - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Investigative Journalism - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - Long Form Frontline Frontline 2012Outstanding Interview Frontline Frontline Outstanding Investigative Journalism - Long Form Frontline Frontline Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a News Magazine Frontline Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine Frontline (Tied) Frontline (Tied) 2013Outstanding Informational Programming - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Informational Programming - Long Form Frontline Frontline Outstanding Investigative Journalism - Long Form Frontline Frontline Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - Long Form Frontline Frontline Frontline Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting in a News Magazine Frontline Frontline Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a News Magazine Frontline Outstanding Feature Story in a News Magazine Frontline Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a News Magazine Frontline Frontline Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine Frontline 2014Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Coverage of a Current News Story - Long Form Frontline Frontline Outstanding Investigative Journalism - Long Form Frontline Frontline Frontline Outstanding Informational Programming - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting - Long Form Frontline 2015Outstanding Documentary Frontline Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Investigative Journalism - Long Form Frontline Outstanding Coverage of a Current News Story - Long Form Frontline Frontline Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a News Magazine Frontline Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine Frontline Frontline 2016Outstanding New Approaches - Current News CoverageFrontlineOutstanding Documentary Frontline Outstanding Report in a News MagazineFrontline Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a News MagazineOutstanding Investigative Journalism - Long Form Frontline Frontline Frontline Outstanding Informational Programming - Long Form Frontline Frontline Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a News Magazine Frontline Frontline Frontline 2017Outstanding DocumentaryFrontline Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary Frontline Outstanding Story in a Newsmagazine Frontline Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a News MagazineOutstanding Politics and Government Documenta Frontline Outstanding Investigative Documentary Frontline Outstanding Social Issue Documentary Frontline Policing the PoliceOutstanding Feature Story in a News Magazine A Subprime Education/The Education of OmarinaOutstanding Business and Economic Documentary The Fantasy Sports Gamble2018Outstanding Story in a NewsmagazineFrontline Frontline Outstanding DocumentaryFrontline Outstanding Short DocumentaryFrontline Outstanding Business and Economic DocumentaryFrontline Outstanding Investigative DocumentaryFrontline Frontline Outstanding Politics and Government DocumentaryFrontline Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a News MagazineFrontline 2019Outstanding Politics and Government DocumentaryFrontline Outstanding Business and Economic DocumentaryFrontline Outstanding Investigative DocumentaryFrontline Frontline Frontline Outstanding Current Affairs DocumentaryFrontline Outstanding DocumentaryFrontline 2020Outstanding Historical DocumentaryFrontline2021Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting - Long FormAmazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff BezosOutstanding Investigative DocumentaryReturn from ISIS2022Outstanding Business, Consumer or Economic CoverageFrontline Outstanding Business and Economic DocumentaryFrontline 2024Best DocumentaryFrontlineOutstanding Business and Economic DocumentaryFrontline
Other awards and nominations Award Year Category Work(s) Result Peabody Awards2019 Documentary HonorFor Sama 2023 Documentary Honor20 Days in Mariupol News HonorClarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court Public Service HonorAmerica and the Taliban 2024 Public Service HonorFrontline Writers Guild of America Awards2006 Outstanding Television Documentary Script – Current EventsFrontline 2006 Frontline
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