Sheila Nevins (born April 6, 1939)[1][2] is an American television producer and former head of MTV Documentary Films division of
MTV Entertainment Studios.[3] Previously, Nevins was the President of
HBO Documentary Films. She has produced over 1,000 documentary films for HBO and is one of the most influential people in documentary filmmaking.[4] She has worked on productions that have been recognized with 35
News and Documentary Emmy Awards, 42
Peabody Awards, and 26
Academy Awards. Nevins has won 31 individual
Primetime Emmy Awards, more than any other person.[5] She is also a member of
the board of directors for the
Peabody Awards.[6]
Early life and education
Nevins was born to a
Jewish family[7] on the
Lower East Side of
Manhattan[1] in New York City to Stella Nevins (née Rosenberg),[8] a
chemist, and Benjamin Nevins, a Russian immigrant post office worker who was also a
bookie. Nevins' family was very poor and her mother suffered from an acute form of
Raynaud's disease, which resulted in amputations of her limbs, and
scleroderma.[9] Nevins has a younger sister (born 1946) who is a doctor.
She received a BA in English from
Barnard College in 1960. In 1963 she received an MFA in Directing from the
Yale School of Drama, where she was one of two women in the directing program.[1][12]
Career
In the 1960s, Nevins began her career at the
United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C. She was hired to play a secretary in the USIA TV series called Adventures in English, which was created to teach English vocabulary, which her character repeated, in foreign countries.[1] Nevins then worked as a researcher, cataloging historical footage about
World War II at the
Library of Congress. Nevins said that this immersive work inspired her to shift focus from the fictional world of theater to the fact-based world of documented in film.[13]
From 1970 to 1973, after moving back to New York, Nevins apprenticed with director
Don Mischer and producer Bob Squire. Nevins then got a job as a researcher on
Al Perlmutter's on the groundbreaking
Channel 13 TV show The Great American Dream Machine, eventually working her way up to doing segments and "man on the street" interviews. Nevins also worked as a director.[14] Inspired by the film Salesman, she hired
Albert and David Maysles to direct parts of the show.[11][15]
In 1973, Nevins was a Field Producer for The Reasoner Report on
ABC News.
In 1978 and 1979, Nevins was a producer for the
CBS News magazine Who's Who.
HBO
In 1979, Nevins was hired by
HBO as Director of Documentary Programming on a 13-week contract.[12] She continued in that position until 1982.
From 1983 to 1985, Nevins had a production company called Spinning Reels and created the animated educational program Braingames.[11][17]
In 1986, Nevins returned to HBO as Vice President of Documentary Programming. In 1995, she became the Senior Vice President of Original Programming. Nevin's tenure at HBO saw the rise of sexually-themed programming in the America Undercover documentary series.[18]
From 1999 to 2003, Nevins was the Executive Vice President of Original Programming at HBO.[15] In 1998, Nevins said that she produced 12 documentaries a year at HBO, with budgets that were typically US$600,000 in 1998 dollars.[19]
Nevins was HBO's President of Documentary and Family Programming since 2004.
In March 2018, Nevins retired from her position at HBO.[20][21]
In 2017, Nevins published a memoir, You Don't Look Your Age... and Other Fairy Tales.[23] Nevins explores concepts of aging, youth, and experience. Some of the book features lightly fictionalized vignettes and poetry.[24][25]Kathy Bates,
Gloria Vanderbilt,
Lily Tomlin,
Martha Stewart,
Meryl Streep,
RuPaul, among many others, contributed audio performances to the audio version of the book.[26]
Personal life
In 1963, Nevins married a lawyer who also attended Yale. Though she wanted to pursue a theater career, her husband wanted her to be home evenings and weekends, forcing her to find a daytime job. The marriage ended in divorce.[13][27]
In 1972, Nevins married investment banker Sidney Koch. The pair had a home in
Litchfield, Connecticut and an apartment on the
Upper East Side of Manhattan. They have one son, David Koch (born 1980).[28] She has discussed her son's struggle with
Tourette syndrome and her struggle to be a working mother with a son who was ill.[16] Nevins has said that the 2007 HBO series, Addiction, was inspired by her son's struggles with substance abuse.[12]
Nevins produced an HBO documentary about the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire called Triangle: Remembering the Fire, to which she had a personal connection, which she found out about after seeing the documentary Schmatta. Nevins' great-aunt Celia Gittlin, a 17-year-old immigrant from Russia, had died in the fire.[29]
Nevins enjoys theater and is an admirer of
Gloria Steinem, who she has deemed "next to my mother, the most important woman I’ve ever met."[30]
2001: Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen – executive producer
Works and publications
Nevins, Sheila (foreword by) (2007). Hoffman, John; Froemke, Susan (eds.). Addiction: Why Can't They Just Stop?: New Knowledge, New Treatments, New Hope. New York: Rodale, Inc.
ISBN978-1-609-61697-7.
OCLC894934005.
^
abRose, Charlie; Nevins, Sheila (March 21, 2001).
"Sheila Nevins – Charlie Rose"(Video interview, includes transcript). Charlie Rose.
Archived from the original on November 12, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
^
abRose, Charlie; Nevins, Sheila (April 28, 2017).
"Sheila Nevins – Charlie Rose"(Video interview with transcript). Charlie Rose.
Archived from the original on November 12, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
^Nevins, Sheila (foreword by) (2007). Hoffman, John; Froemke, Susan (eds.). Addiction: Why Can't They Just Stop?: New Knowledge, New Treatments, New Hope. New York: Rodale, Inc.
ISBN978-1-609-61697-7.
OCLC894934005.
^Mesce, Jr., Bill (2015). Inside the Rise of HBO: A Personal History of the Company That Transformed Television. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 137.
ISBN978-1-476-62225-5.
OCLC913376198.
Cunningham, Megan (2005). "Producing: Sheila Nevins: Collaborating with Directors". The Art of the Documentary: Fifteen Conversations with Leading Directors, Cinematographers, Editors, and Producers. San Francisco: New Riders.
ISBN978-0-133-76497-0.
OCLC869792233.
Dunn, Edwina (2017). "Sheila Nevins". The Female Lead: Women Who Shape Our World. London: Ebury Press.
ISBN978-1-473-52945-8.
OCLC992169535.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sheila Nevins.