JOHN HOFFMAN JOINS DISCOVERY CHANNEL AS EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF DOCUMENTARIES AND SPECIALS
Five Time Emmy Award Winning and Veteran HBO Documentary Filmmaker Joins Discovery
January 8, 2015
(Los Angeles) - Discovery Channel today announced the appointment of John Hoffman as Executive Vice President of Documentaries and Specials, a key position on the senior leadership team of Discovery's flagship network. Beginning immediately, Hoffman will be responsible and have oversight for all development activities in the alternative and specials area. He will produce original documentary programming from development through production, commission and acquire films and specials and be responsible for developing cross-platform programming.
"Documentaries remain an integral part of what we do and who we are at Discovery," said Rich Ross, president of Discovery Channel. "Given our legacy, our documentary filmmaking must be valued and protected. John is one of the best in our business, and his filmmaking experience, coupled with his ability to bring together unprecedented partnerships, will keep Discovery moving forward as leaders in groundbreaking and award-winning documentary films."
Hoffman's work has received numerous awards, including five Prime Time Emmy® awards with 14 nominations. Additional honors include a Peabody Award, two duPont-Columbia awards, and nine News & Documentary Emmy® Award nominations, among others.
Most recently Hoffman served as CEO of The Public Good Projects, a non-profit production company he founded in 2013 to provide innovative media that makes complex health problems easier to understand so people can take better care of themselves and their families. His company's first film, Sleepless in America, which explored the sleep loss epidemic in the U.S., aired on the National Geographic Channel in 2014 and Hoffman served as both director and executive producer.
Earlier, Hoffman was a part of HBO Documentary Films for 17 years where, in addition to his executive role as vice president, he most recently executive produced and directed the multiple-Emmy®-nominated The Weight of the Nation, a groundbreaking four-part documentary series, featuring case studies and interviews with our nation's leading experts and the stories of individuals and families struggling with obesity. Presented by HBO in a collaboration with the Institute of Medicine (IOM), in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), this series was made in partnership with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kaiser Permanente.
Other notable HBO documentaries on which Hoffman served as a producer include the multiple Emmy®-winning The Alzheimer's Project; Emmy® Governors Award winning series Addiction; All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise; Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops From the Battlefields of Iraq; A Rape in a Small Town: The Florence Holway Story; My Architect; Emmy®- and Dupont-Columbia Award-winning film In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01; Lalee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton; Sundance- and Berlin Film Festival Award-winning film Paragraph 175; A Little Curious; Emmy®-winning film Children in War; Cancer: Evolution to Revolution; and Emmy®- and Academy Award®-winning film One Day in September, among others.
In addition to his film work at HBO, Hoffman is a published author. He wrote companion books for three of his HBO films, including Addiction: Why Can't They Just Stop?, The Alzheimer's Project: Momentum in Science and The Weight of the Nation: Surprising Lessons About Diets, Food, and Fat from the Extraordinary Series from HBO Documentary Films.
Before joining HBO, Hoffman created and produced the award-winning Nickelodeon series Allegra's Window from 1993-96. He earlier served as a producer at Children's Television Workshop and before that was the administrative director of the Center for Special Studies at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Hoffman also co-founded the non-profit production company AIDSFILMS, dedicated to HIV education. As the executive director of AIDSFILMS from 1987-90, he raised funds and produced six multi-award winning documentaries including the PBS special, AIDS: Changing the Rules.
Hoffman is based in New York and is a graduate of Cornell University.
About Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is dedicated to creating the highest quality non-fiction content that informs and entertains its consumers about the world in all its wonder, diversity and amazement. The network, which is distributed to 100.8 million U.S. homes, can be seen in 210 countries and territories, offering a signature mix of compelling, high-end production values and vivid cinematography across genres including, science and technology, exploration, adventure, history and in-depth, behind-the-scenes glimpses at the people, places and organizations that shape and share our world. For more information, please visit www.discovery.com.
About Discovery Communications
Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) is the world's #1 pay-TV programmer reaching nearly 3 billion cumulative subscribers in more than 220 countries and territories. Discovery is dedicated to satisfying curiosity, engaging and entertaining viewers with high-quality content on worldwide television networks, led by Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery and Science, as well as U.S. joint venture network OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Discovery also controls Eurosport International, a premier sports entertainment group, including six pay-TV network brands across Europe and Asia. Discovery also is a leading provider of educational products and services to schools, including an award-winning series of K-12 digital textbooks, through Discovery Education, and a digital leader with a diversified online portfolio, including Discovery Digital Networks. For more information, please visit www.discoverycommunications.com.
###