
Person
David Fanning
Production · Born 1946-05-25 · South Africa
Biography
David Fanning has been executive producer of Frontline , America’s only regularly scheduled investigative documentary series on television, since its first season in 1983. The series has won all the major awards for broadcast journalism, including 34 Emmys, 23 duPont-Columbia University Awards, 12 Peabody Awards, and 11 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards. In 2002, the series was honored with an unprecedented third Gold Baton from duPont-Columbia for its post September 11th coverage, a series of seven hour-long documentaries on the origins and impact of terrorism. In 2003, “A Dangerous Business,” a Frontline / New York Times joint investigation of the cast-iron pipe making industry, won the Pulitzer Prize for public service. Fanning began his filmmaking career as a young journalist in South Africa. He came to the US in 1973 and began producing and directing local and national documentaries for KOCE, a public television station in California. In 1977, Fanning came to WGBH Boston to start the international documentary series WORLD.
Known for

Frontline
Creator

Snitch
Executive Producer
Facing Death
Executive Producer

Speaking of Sex
Co-Producer

The Released
Executive Producer

Mosul
Executive Producer

The Age of AIDS
Executive Producer

Money, Power & Wall Street
Executive Producer

America's Great Divide: From Obama to Trump
Executive Producer

Burden of Innocence
Executive Producer
Filmography
- 2024Documenting Police Use of ForceExecutive Producer
- 2023Inside the Uvalde ResponseExecutive Producer
- 2023America's Dangerous TrucksExecutive Producer
- 2023After Uvalde: Guns, Grief & Texas PoliticsExecutive Producer
- 2022Plot to Overturn the ElectionExecutive Producer
- 2021Taliban TakeoverExecutive Producer
- 2021America After 9/11Executive Producer
- 2021The Healthcare DivideExecutive Producer
- 2021President BidenExecutive Producer
- 2020Once Upon a Time in IraqExecutive Producer
- 2020America's Great Divide: From Obama to TrumpExecutive Producer
- 2019In the Age of AIProducer
- 2019Predator on the ReservationExecutive Producer
- 2018Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi ArabiaWriter
- 2017MosulExecutive Producer
- 2017The Fish on My PlateWriter
- 2017Out of GitmoExecutive Producer
- 2016Terror in EuropeExecutive Producer
- 2014The Rise of ISISExecutive Producer
- 2014To Catch A TraderProducer
- 2013SnitchExecutive Producer
- 2013Outlawed in PakistanExecutive Producer
- 2012The Suicide PlanExecutive Producer
- 2012Dollars and DentistsExecutive Producer
- 2012Money, Power & Wall StreetExecutive Producer
- 2012Nuclear AftershocksExecutive Producer
- 2011Lost in DetentionExecutive Producer
- 2010Facing DeathExecutive Producer
- 2010The Dancing Boys of AfghanistanExecutive Producer
- 2009The ReleasedExecutive Producer
- 2006The Age of AIDSExecutive Producer
- 2006The Tank ManExecutive Producer
- 2005The New AsylumsExecutive Producer
- 2004Beyond BaghdadExecutive Producer
- 2003Burden of InnocenceExecutive Producer
- 2001Speaking of SexCo-Producer
- 2000The Killer at Thurston HighExecutive Producer
- 1990Seven Days in BensonhurstExecutive Producer
- 1987War on NicaraguaExecutive Producer
- 1986Hostage in IranExecutive Producer
- 1983FrontlineCreator
- 1982Frank Terpil: Confessions of a Dangerous ManProducer
- 1981Against Wind and Tide: A Cuban OdysseyWriter
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