Shari Cookson

Shari Cookson is a Primetime Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. Her latest film, Requiem for the Dead: American Spring 2014 on gun violence premiered on HBO in June 2015. She produced and directed the documentary with filmmaking partner, Nick Doob, under their banner Mackerel Sky Films.

Cookson and Doob won a Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking for The Memory Loss Tapes, part of HBO's Alzheimer's Project. Their other HBO Emmy nominated films are Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life & Times of Katrina Gilbert, which was awarded the Television Academy's TV Honors Award and the documentary series The Weight of the Nation for Kids.

Cookson is also the President of the documentary film production company Sceneworks. Her other HBO credits include the Emmy-nominated documentaries All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise and Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen; Skinheads USA, which earned her a DGA nomination; and Asylum, a Sundance selection. Additional credits include Lifetime's Signature Series and On Campus, for which she won a Los Angeles Area Emmy.

A graduate of USC, Cookson received the Television Academy's college documentary award for her student film Gunshot. She lives in Los Angeles with her two children and husband, editor Charlton McMillan, with whom she has collaborated on numerous films.

Twitter: @shari_cookson
Instagram: @sharicookson
TikTok: @shari_cookson