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American Experience

1988

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Mark Samels

Executive Producer · Known for American Experience

Mark Samels is an American documentary producer native of Wisconsin. He is executive producer of American Experience, PBS's longest-running history series.

Wendy Kline

Wendy Kline is an American historian of medicine specializing in the cultural and political histories of women’s reproductive health and the history of the criminal mind. She is the author of four books: Building a Better Race (UC Press), Bodies of Knowledge (Chicago), Coming Home (Oxford), and Exposed: The Hidden History of the Pelvic Exam (Polity). Her current project, Picking the Brain to Map the Mind, examines the early twentieth-century origins of psychiatric expert testimony through brain morphology. In 2014 Kline joined Purdue University as the Dema G. Seelye Chair in the History of Medicine, where she directs the Medical Humanities Certificate Program. Her research has been supported by the Huntington Library, British Academy, and Fulbright fellowships, and featured in PBS’s American Experience and Netflix’s Sex, Explained. Kline is also a SCUBA diver and violinist with the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra.

Stephen Talbot

Stephen Henderson Talbot is a TV documentary producer, actor, writer and reporter. Talbot directed and produced "The Movement and the 'Madman' " for the PBS series American Experience in 2023. He is a longtime contributor to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and worked for over 16 years for the series Frontline. Before becoming a journalist and documentary producer, Talbot was a television child actor in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He is best known for his role in the TV sitcom Leave It to Beaver, in which he played Gilbert Bates, friend of Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Jerry Mathers). Talbot's more than 40 documentaries include the Frontline films "The Best Campaign Money Can Buy", "Rush Limbaugh's America", "The Long March of Newt Gingrich", "Justice for Sale", and "News War: What's Happening to the News". Talbot has also written and produced PBS biographies of writers Dashiell Hammett, Beryl Markham, Ken Kesey, Carlos Fuentes, Maxine Hong Kingston and John Dos Passos. He was co-creator and executive producer of the PBS music specials, Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders.

Samm-Art Williams

Samm-Art Williams (born Samuel Arthur Williams; January 20, 1946) is an American playwright and screenwriter, and a stage and film/TV actor and television producer. Much of his work concerns the African-American experience. He was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his play Home (1979), which moved from the Negro Ensemble Company to a Broadway production in 1980. In the mid-1980s, he received two Emmy nominations for his work for TV series. The Black Rep of St. Louis, Missouri produced the premier of his play The Montford Point Marine (2011). From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sarah Colt

Director · Known for American Experience

ince founding Sarah Colt Productions in 2008, Sarah Colt (she/her) has primarily directed and produced for PBS’ award-winning history series, American Experience – including the Emmy-nominated Walt Disney, The Gilded Age, Henry Ford, The Polio Crusade, Billy Graham and, most recently, Fly With Me, which premiered in 2024. The Disrupted, Sarah Colt’s first independent feature documentary, premiered in 2020, is an emotionally rich observational drama about a displaced factory worker in Ohio, a 5th generation Kansas farmer in danger of losing the family land, and a laid-off mortgage processor turned Uber driver in Florida, and their urgent efforts to overcome financial circumstances beyond their control.

Robert Kenner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Robert Kenner is an American film and television screenwriter, television director, film director, film producer, and television producer. His career began in 1971 as an assistant cinematographer, and produced his first motion picture, 3:15 - The Moment of Truth, in 1984 (although it was not released until 1986). His second feature film did not come until 1991's Lonely Hearts. His first breakout project was the televised documentary The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal, which he produced for the National Geographic Society and which aired in 1993 on PBS. The following year, he directed and produced Russia's Last Tsar for National Geographic and PBS. He also directed and produced America's Endangered Species: Don't Say Good-bye in 1996. The International Documentary Association presented the picture with the Strand Award for Best Documentary. Kenner began a long association with the award-winning PBS documentary television program American Experience in 1998. That year he directed and produced the widely reviewed Influenza, 1918 (about the 1918 flu pandemic)and followed it up with John Brown's Holy War (about abolitionist John Brown) in 2001. His first documentary which he wrote, directed and produced was War Letters, which aired on American Experience in 2001. The documentary is based on the 2001 New York Times best-selling book War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars by historian Andrew Carroll. He produced the episode, "The Road to Memphis," for the 2003 PBS documentary series, The Blues, and in 2005 produced and directed the Vietnam War documentary, Two Days in October. The documentary was the season premiere of American Experience. The film, which is based on David Maraniss' book They Marched into Sunlight, looks at the parallels between a Viet Cong ambush of a U.S. Army patrol (and the subsequent cover-up of the loss by the American military) and a violent clash between police and student protesters at the University of Wisconsin–Madison—events which occurred 24 hours apart in October 1967. The episode was nominated for and won the award for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking at the 2006 Emmy Awards. In 2008, Kenner produced and directed the documentary film, Food, Inc., which examines large-scale agricultural food production in the United States, concluding that the meat and vegetables produced by this type of economic enterprise leads to inexpensive but environmentally harmful and unhealthy food. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Kenner, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.​

Geoffrey C. Ward

Writer · Known for American Experience

Geoffrey C. Ward is an author, editor, historian and writer of scripts for American History Documentaries for Public Television. He is the author or co-author of 18 books. Five books are companion books to documentary films that he has written. He has won seven Emmy Awards. The principal writer of the television mini-series The Civil War (1990,) Ward has collaborated with its co-producer Ken Burns on many of the documentaries he has made since, including Jazz, Baseball, The War and Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. This work has garnered him five Emmy Awards. He also won two Emmys for the American Experience series, including The Kennedys, in 1992 and TR,The Story of Theodore Roosevelt in 1996. His script for the documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, won the Writers Guild of America Award in 2005[3] and the accompanying book won the 2006 William Hill Sports Book of the Year and the Anisfield-Wolf Award for best biography. In 2006, the Organization of American Historians gave Ward their Friend of History Award for his outstanding contributions to American history: "Over the last twenty years Geoffrey Ward's writings on American History have had a greater influence and reached a wider audience than those of any other American writer and historian. [His] work is always his own, but he has also helped free ideas that otherwise might have been imprisoned in the academy and helped them find a wider world. He has helped academic historians understand the possibilities, limits, and demands of what has become the medium through which most Americans now get their history." The most recent Burns/Ward collaboration, Prohibition (2011), brought Ward his seventh Emmy for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming. He is currently at work on a multi-part series "Vietnam", with Lynn Novick and Ken Burns. He is the principle writer or co-writer of 24 documentary films. Ward is married to the writer and social/environmental activist Diane Raines Ward. He has three children.

Eve Best

Cast · Known for Nurse Jackie, House of the Dragon

Eve Best (born Emily Best; 31 July 1971) is an English actress, best known for her roles as Dr. O'Hara in the Showtime television series Nurse Jackie, as Wallis Simpson in the 2010 film The King's Speech, and Dolley Madison in the 2011 American Experience television special about that First Lady. Description above from the Wikipedia article Eve Best, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

David McCullough

Cast · Known for American Experience

David Gaub McCullough (July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, McCullough earned a degree in English literature from Yale University. His first book was The Johnstown Flood (1968), and he wrote nine more on such topics as Harry S. Truman, John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Panama Canal, and the Wright brothers. McCullough also narrated numerous documentaries, such as The Civil War by Ken Burns, as well as the 2003 film Seabiscuit, and he hosted the PBS television documentary series American Experience for twelve years. McCullough's two Pulitzer Prize–winning books—Truman and John Adams.—were adapted by HBO into a TV film and a miniseries, respectively.

Toni Morrison

Chloe Anthony Wofford "Toni" Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019) was an American novelist and editor. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987). Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. Morrison earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first Black female editor for fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her novel Beloved was made into a film in 1998. Morrison's works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the United States and the Black American experience. The National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1996. She was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters the same year. President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 29, 2012. She received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. Morrison was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020. Description above from the Wikipedia article Toni Morrison, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Ethan Smith

Executive Producer · Producer · Known for Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Fury

Ethan Smith (born April 2, 1978) is a highly experienced American film and television executive producer and unit production manager. He first entered the industry in the early 2000s, working in various roles across production and location management—including assistant and supervisory positions on titles like Maid in Manhattan (2002), Frequency (2000), and The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)—before advancing to producer credits in mid‑2000s films such as Sherrybaby (2006), Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010), Sabotage (2014), and Fury (2014). By the mid‑2010s, Smith had begun taking on dual roles as unit production manager and executive producer on major studio features. His work on Joy (2015), Atomic Blonde (2017), and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019). These three titles alone grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide in the UPM category. He also served as executive producer on Borderlands (2024). In television, he is credited as a producer on series including The Nine (2006), Everwood (2002–2006), CSI: NY (2004–2013), and Without a Trace (2002–2009). He served as a unit production manager and produced the MCU Disney+ series Ironheart (2025), as well as executive produced Now You See Me 3 (2025). Smith has accumulated over $960 million in worldwide box office revenue through his unit production manager roles and over $1 billion as an executive producer, placing him among the top 100 technical professionals in those categories.

Stanley Nelson

Stanley Earl Nelson Jr. (born June 7, 1951) is an American documentary filmmaker and a MacArthur Fellow known as a director, writer and producer of documentaries examining African-American history and experiences. He is a recipient of the 2013 National Humanities Medal from President Obama. He has won three Primetime Emmy Awards. Among his notable films are Freedom Riders (2010), Wounded Knee (2009), Jonestown: The Life & Death of People's Temple (2006), Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice (2005), A Place of Our Own (2004), The Murder of Emmett Till (2003), and The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords (1998).

The American Dream

2026

No one would have bet on Jérémy, stuck behind the counter of a video store, or on Bouna, who cleans airports. With no money, no connections, and painfully poor English, who could have predicted they’d one day become big-name agents in the NBA? What they lack in experience, they will make up for in audacity, while remaining true to their one credo, doing business with a human touch. Scouting raw talent while improvising their way up, they’ll fake it until they make it – chasing their American Dream and landing multi-million-dollar deals.

Corey Mach

Corey Mach is an American theater & TV actor with more than two decades of professional experience. He has been seen on Broadway in Kinky Boots and the original casts of the Godspell revival & Hands on a Hardbody. He has led the National Touring Casts of Rent, Wicked & Flashdance the Musical. He has starred in multiple World Premiere musicals such as Waitress with Sara Bareilles, Mystic Pizza, From Here To Eternity supervised by Sir Tim Rice & Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing, written and directed by James Lapine. Corey has also been seen on television in "The Blacklist", "FBI" & "Uncoupled" on Netflix.

Chelle Ramos

An American actress of Asian and Caucasian descent allowing her to play an array of ethnicities. Her first on set experience was for the movie Chatterbox. After getting a taste of the industry, it has kept her curiosity to keep exploring. She then moved to Orlando, FL to get formal training at Art's Sake Studio with Yvonne Suhor (The Young Riders). She now resides in Atlanta, GA studying closely with Adam Stoner, an original member of the prestigious New York Film Academy. Stoner ran the Film Academy's Film and Acting programs. While Chelle continues to hone her craft, she's staying busy in a booming film and TV market.

Steve Bloom

Editor · Known for Coco, Elio, Turning Red

Steve Bloom is an award-winning American film editor with over 30 years of experience in film, television, and documentary production. He is a member of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) and has worked with major studios such as Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), DreamWorks PDI, and Pixar. Bloom began working at Pixar in the early 2000s, initially being offered an opening for editing short films before moving on to full-length features. His editing credits include James and the Giant Peach, Antz, Monsters University, Coco, Toy Story 4, Turning Red, and Elio. He was also involved in ILM’s canceled CG Frankenstein project and contributed as an additional editor on Shrek and an assistant editor on Mars Attacks, though he remained uncredited on those projects due to his limited involvement (He edited approximately 8 to 9 minutes of Shrek’s footage, according to his own account). Bloom’s favorite Pixar films are The Incredibles, Inside Out, Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, and Coco. His least favorite is Cars 2, he doesn’t like the Cars series in general, but he told me not to say that online (oops)

Jeff Dashnaw

Jeffrey James Dashnaw is an American award-winning stunt coordinator and stunt performer with over 35 years experience in the stunt business. He is married to fellow stunt coordinator/stunt performer Tracy Keehn-Dashnaw; they have 5 children: their sons J.J., Chad, and Jake are also stunt coordinators/stunt performers. Their son Nick was a stunt performer until his death in 2016.

Uttsada Panichkul

Over a decade of entertainment experience, Utt's a familiar name in Southeast Asia. Thai/Chinese American-born Utt grew up in California where he attended California State University Northridge before transferring his studies to Thailand at Assumption University, where he studied Communication Arts with a major in Advertising. Utt's popularity is credited to his range to both host and act. His hosting lists include music, travel, entertainment, the supernatural, and more. Utt is at his best handling Live Events and Telecast Shows, having hosted a Live Talent Show, a Live Band Series, and Grandeur Events such as the Asia TV Awards three times, the Mandarin Music Honors, Countdown Shows, and the Miss Earth Beauty Pageant. He's an established Actor, acting in over a dozen dramas in Thailand in which several have been critically received. His acting experience has crossed over to Singapore taking the lead role in an Award-winning screenplay that was adapted for television called Chase, it was well-received and bought over to countries such as Japan a spinoff to the series was soon put into production with Utt leading the cast once again. Utt's first film, an independent romantic comedy film called Tied In Knots was shot and produced in LA. He's the face of countless endorsements in Asia, Utt displays the right balance a blend that gives him the opportunity to cross different markets.

Amber Nash

Cast · Known for Archer

Amber Nash is an American actress. She currently stars in the cartoon as Pam Poovey, whom she describes as "a sturdy bisexual". She also starred in the cartoon Frisky Dingo and has extensive experience in theatrical performances. She is a co-founder of the The Doug Dank Project at Push Push Theatre; she is also part of the Catch 23. Amber Nash studied with Improv Olympic in Chicago. She has been doing theater for approximately 13 years in the Atlanta, Georgia area. She is part of the Improv Ensemble at Dad's Garage Theater, where she is a performer, teacher, creator and director. She is also involved at The Laughing Matters, working as an improviser, actor and team builder.

Jef Travis

Jef Travis is an American actor known for his realistic portrayal of damaged & unsettling characters. Born and raised in Southern California his first experience on a professional set was as a featured extra on short-lived television series in 1988, TV 101 which became known for its honest portrayal of youth and music subcultures. His first theater roles came in 2008 - 2009 when he was cast in the stage production of Zoot Suit. Produced and Directed by Alma Martinez (Martinez was a cast member from the cinematic adaptation of the play) with the blessings of Zoot Suit author Luis Valdez. He played two roles in the first season and three in the second. These characters sparked a love of the villain roles that he has become known for.

Rylie Rodriguez

Rylie is a Mexican-American actress born and raised in Texas. She began to pursue a screen acting career at 8 years old when she booked her first audition ever for (at the time) USC film major students. Given the opportunity to experience sets with a professional atmosphere, Rylie developed a passion for the craft. She has since then continued to train rigorously, expanding her abilities as an actress, and attain lead roles in independent projects.

Harry Edwards

Harry Edwards is an American sociologist and civil rights activist. He completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University and is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Edwards' career has focused on the experiences of African-American athletes.

Garrett Bradley

Garrett Bradley is an American filmmaker and director of short films, feature films, documentaries, and television. She is known for blending cinematic genres to investigate the larger sociopolitical significance embedded within the everyday moments of her subjects' lived experience.