Megan Chao

Megan Chao is an award-winning documentary producer and editor based in Los Angeles with 15 years of experience specializing in documentaries. She has a successful track record of shepherding projects from development through show delivery.

Chao is currently making her directorial debut on Two Equal Sons (wt), a feature documentary about Andrew and Elad Dvash-Banks, a same-sex, multi-national couple who experienced discrimination from the U.S. State Department about the legitimacy of their twin sons. Their 2018 Supreme Court case became a landmark for the LGBTQ+ community and their rights to have a family. This is slated for release in 2023. She is also in production on a few documentary series and feature projects, to be announced.

Recently, Chao was supervising producer and editor on a historical documentary about a little-known character who saves literacy and Western Civilization. Saint Patrick's Greatest Gift is based on The NYT Bestsellers book series, The Hinges of History, by late author and historian Thomas Cahill.

Other notable projects: Chao was supervising producer and editor on the critically-acclaimed Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story for Netflix. The 16-year odyssey explores the complexity of our criminal justice system through the lens of one Tennessee family. The feature documentary made the Netflix U.S. Top 10 List for the first week of its broadcast. This was based on our 2010 award-winning documentary, Me Facing Life: Cyntoia Brown, for PBS | Independent Lens, which was part of the Community Cinema Program and integrated into curricula for the Women and Girls lead program. In addition, Chao was also producer and editor for the 2016 Independent Lens seven-part series, Sentencing Children, which was a collaboration with The Tennessean and ITVS to explore juvenile justice through a series of offenders at various stages of the system.

Chao started her career in 2009 with Birman Productions, Inc. as a researcher on Brace for Impact: The Chesley B. Sullenberger Story for Discovery Channel and TLC. She quickly rose through the ranks, earning her first producing credit on Chasing Speed: Leslie Porterfield, a documentary for Velocity Channel about Leslie Porterfield, the fastest woman in the world on a motorcycle. Other notable documentaries she was producer and editor on: The Big Bang Machine for NOVA, Curious Minds: Conscious Capitalism and The Hunt for Dark Matter for CuriosityStream and Perfecting Flight, an independent feature documentary with executive producer and actor Harrison Ford.

Prior, Chao was a science journalist who published with the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, a collaborative to encourage cross-disciplinary research. She also worked for KNX 1070 News Radio in Los Angeles and was part of the award-winning team coverage for the 2008 Malibu fires.

Academic appointment: Chao has been a faculty member at USC Annenberg since 2010, and is faculty adviser and line producer for the award-winning, student-produced documentary series, Impact, which broadcasts weekly on Spectrum News 1. The series has more than 150 episodes featuring 400 stories spanning all genres and topics.

Chao serves on the Board of Governors at the Television Academy representing the Documentary Programming peer group. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America, as part of the Documentary and Non-Fiction Committee and the One Guild – Asian American and Pacific Islander Working Group. She is also a member of the International Documentary Association (IDA) and the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).

updated 12.20.22