Tanya Stephan
agent: Camilla Chiverton - camilla@sternwild.com
Tanya Stephan is a BAFTA and multi-award-winning director of premium documentaries. Her films seek out the powerful human stories behind the headlines, creating beautifully crafted and compelling narratives with cinematic flair and purpose.
Her most recent work includes a soon-to-be-announced premium retrospective true crime series, from a survivor perspective, for Sky Documentaries. The series spans thirty years of British history, working with high-end drama recon, stylish interviews, archive, and sensitive mental health issues
Ukraine’s War Diaries, her ground-breaking documentary for BBC ONE marked the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and was nominated for a Rose D’Or in 2023. The film was entirely told through the voices and self-shot stories of five Ukrainians on the frontline and in cities under attack over 11 months.
In 2022, she won a BAFTA, a Grierson, and an RTS Journalism Award for her feature-length documentary The Missing Children about the transatlantic Catholic mother-and-baby homes scandal (ITVX). She was also long-listed for the BAFTA Craft Award for Best Director (Factual) and nominated for the Prix Italia for Best Documentary.
She also directed a 3 x 45 series version of The Missing Children (Topic Studios/ Apple TV / Amazon Prime).
In her previous work, she has filmed and directed high profile documentaries about mental health (Sheridan Smith: Becoming Mum, ITV), chronic addiction (Compulsion, BBC2), the unprecedented story of an anonymous egg donor tracking down her biological children (Donor Mum, BBC ONE), and the lives of two young girls in a Muslim faith school (Muslim School, C4).
After a degree in History at Cambridge, she began her career as a radio journalist freelancing for the BBC World Service and BBC Radio Scotland. She later trained in Documentary Directing at the National Film and Television school with a scholarship from the British Federation of Women Graduates. She is a dual UK/US citizen.
Please see Tanya’s own website