Joedan Okun

Joedan Okun is an Emmy, Grammy and PGA Award winning Producer that most recently produced American Symphony, a feature documentary on Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad that premiered at the Telluride Film Festival where Variety called it "one of the best love stories seen on film in over two decades." The film, which was acquired by Netflix and Michelle and Barack Obama's Higher Ground Productions, was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Original Song); won 2 Grammys including Best Music Film; and won the PGA Award for Best Documentary. Prior to that, Joedan was an Executive Producer of the Academy Award shortlisted and 3x Emmy Award-winning Retrograde for National Geographic Films. He previously was the Executive Producer of the IDA award winning, Academy Award shortlisted and 3x Emmy Award-winning The First Wave, a feature documentary on Covid-19 that was released by Neon and National Geographic Films. Before that, he was a Producer of The Boy from Medellin, a feature documentary on Reggaeton superstar J Balvin that premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival before being released by Amazon Studios. Earlier that year, he was also an Executive Producer on the second season of The Trade, a 4 part docu-series on human smuggling that premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for 4 Emmys. Joedan was also a Supervising Producer on the first season of The Trade which was honored by the International Documentary Association as the Best Episodic Series of 2018. Before that, Joedan co-produced the DGA award-winning City of Ghosts, a feature documentary on Syrian citizen journalists that premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. He also worked as a Field Producer on the Peabody Award winning Time: The Kalief Browder Story, a six part docu-series from Executive Producer Jay-Z that also screened at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Prior to that, he produced Maggie Betts' documentary, The Carrier, an intimate look at the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission that was broadcast by PBS. Additional credits include work on the Academy-Award nominated Cartel Land, the Raf Simons profile Dior and I, the Cuban racing film Havana Motor Club, the PTSD documentary Buried Above Ground, the Academy-Award nominated documentary short Why Cant we be a Family Again and the Emmy Award winning documentary The Pill. Joedan graduated with Honors from Wesleyan University.