- Born
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- Director and filmmaker, Joshua Seftel received his first Emmy nomination at age 22 with his documentary 'Lost and Found' about Romania's orphaned children. The film led to the American adoption of thousands of Romanian orphans. He followed this with several documentaries including the political campaign film 'Taking on the Kennedys' selected by Time Magazine as one of the "ten best of the year"; the underdog sports film 'The Home Team' which premiered at SXSW, and the behind-the-scenes film about Annie's Broadway revival 'It's the Hard Knock Life' which the New York Times called "delightful." His 2016 award-winning documentary, 'The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano' produced with Geralyn Dreyfous and Steve Tisch, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, won the IDA Documentary Award, and became the most viewed New York Times Op-Doc of the year.
Seftel continues to helm the ongoing documentary series he created, 'Secret Life of Muslims' a Peabody Award Finalist and Emmy nominee. The timely personal short films which combat Islamophobia have more than 70 million views to date. His newest documentary, 'Stranger at the Gate' was born from the series and released by The New Yorker. The film has been called "A remarkable story of redemption...an Oscar contender" by Deadline Hollywood.
Seftel is known for directing the Emmy-winning breakthrough series 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,' the feature film 'War, Inc.' starring John Cusack, Marisa Tomei and Ben Kingsley, and the comedy series, 'My Mom in Quarantine' he makes with his 85-year-old mother, Pat, which became a regular segment throughout the pandemic on CBS Sunday Morning. The New York Times wrote, "the word 'droll' seems as if it were invented for these two."
- IMDb mini biography by: Seftel Productions
- ParentsLee Seftel
- RelativesJudy Blume(Cousin)
- Attended Tufts University
- His stories have appeared on Ira Glass' This American Life and Showtime's This American Life television program.
- Writes essays for NPR and Salon.com.
- Was TV news producer for Bryant Gumbel, Dan Rather, Steve Hartman, Harry Smith, and Alison Stewart.
- Has delivered babies with his obstetrician father, Dr. Lee Seftel.
- [on directing 'John Cusack' in War, Inc.] When he would do a scene, he'd nail it in one or two takes, and he'd give me two or three more takes that were slightly different. There was such precision to it, how they were different: Here's one that's slightly funnier; here's one that's slightly more serious; here's one that's slightly more concerned. He had such control over his instrument, his body.
- [on creating Hilary Duff's character in War Inc.] I went online and I printed out the trampiest pictures of our trampiest pop-stars in their trampiest moments. And I tried to take the most horrific aspects of several of them and try to combine it into one person.
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