Raney Aronson-Rath

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Raney Aronson-Rath
Raney Aronson-Rath at the News & Documentary Emmys in New York, NY. September 2022.
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin (B A., 1992) [1] Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (M.A.)
Occupation	Filmmaker
Title	Executive Producer, Frontline
Spouse	Arun Rath

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^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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,^[8] as well as a film initiative focused on accountability for institutions and public officials called the Transparency Project.^[9]

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.^[10]

She has received numerous accolades for producing the documentary feature film 20 Days in Mariupol, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival^[11] and won the Best Documentary Feature Award at the 96th Academy Awards.^[12] At Sundance, the film won the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition.^[13][14][15] It was also selected as the Ukrainian submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, but was not ultimately nominated in this category.^[16][17]

Aronson-Rath was a 2014-2015 Fellow at the MIT Open Doc Lab.^[18] Aronson-Rath has been a speaker at the Skoll World Forum,^[19] the Aspens Ideas Summit,^[20] The National Scholastic Press Association's High School Journalism Convention, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and The Power of Narrative Journalism Conference.^[21]

Since 2015, Frontline has won many accolades under her direction, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film,^[22] The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award, IRE Awards, The George Foster Peabody Award,^[23] Peabody-Facebook Futures of Media Award,^[24] 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,^[25] and Writer's Guild Awards,^[26] and the 2019 dupont-Columbia Gold Baton award,^[27] among others.

She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2024.^[28]