Daffodil Altan
Lecturer
Producer/Lecturer
Alumni
Daffodil Altan is an Emmy-nominated investigative producer and correspondent for FRONTLINE PBS who has worked in print and radio, in addition to documentary film. Most recently she was a producer at the J-School’s Investigative Reporting Program, where she directed, wrote and was the correspondent for the FRONTLINE documentary, “Trafficked in America,” which tells the inside story of Guatemalan teens who were forced to work against their will on an Ohio egg farm and was recently selected as a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. She produced the FRONTLINE/Univision documentary, “Rape on the Night Shift,” a film, radio and print collaboration between the IRP, Reveal at The Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED, which investigated the hidden reality of rape on the job for women janitors in the U.S. The film won the Investigative Reporters and Editors award for best Broadcast/Video in 2016, led to the passage of a new state law in California, and was nominated for two national Emmys. Previously she was a producer at Reveal for the Center for Investigative Reporting, where she co-produced the Emmy-nominated Telemundo/MSNBC documentary, “Batalla en La Frontera/Clash at the Border,” and where her multimedia reporting on teen solitary confinement at Rikers Island earned her an Emmy nomination and was part of a wave of renewed coverage that led to the banning of solitary confinement for teens at the New York City jail. She was also a reporter and interviewer for the DuPont award-winning FRONTLINE/Univision documentary, “Rape in the Fields.”
Her print, radio and production credits include: FRONTLINE, Univision, MSNBC, Telemundo, KQED, Reveal, the PBS NewsHour, The Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, and the OC Weekly (where she was a staff writer), among others. She has received awards for her work from Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., the Society of Professional Journalists, The Third Coast Audio Festival, the Los Angeles Press Club and the Imagen Foundation. She has received grants for her work from the MacArthur Foundation, the International Documentary Association, and Latino Public Broadcasting. She has a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she is also a lecturer, and she is a mom to two wonderful little people.
AWARDS & HONORS
2019Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism, finalist for “Trafficked in America” (Director/Correspondent/Producer)
2016
Third Coast Audio Festival, Directors Choice Award for “Violación de un Sue?o: Jornada Nocturna” (Producer)
2016
National News and Documentary Emmy nominee for “Rape on the Night Shift” (Producer)
National News and Documentary Emmy nominee for “Clash at the Border/Batalla en la Frontera” (Producer)
Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for Best Broadcast, “Rape on the Night Shift.” (Producer)
2015
National Emmy nominee for “The Box: Teens in Solitary Confinement” (Reporter/Producer)
2014
Society of Professional Journalists, Excellence in Video Journalism (Essay) Award for “The Box: Teens in Solitary Confinement.” (Reporter/Producer)
2013
National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications, New Media Winner for “Black and Latino” (Director/Producer)
2012
Imagen Award, Best Web Series/Reality for “Black and Latino,” (Director/Producer)
2009
Journalist of the Year, Finalist, Los Angeles Press Club Awards
2008
Society of Professional Journalists Award, Best Education Story for “Hard Knocks,” OC Weekly
Los Angeles Press Club Awards, Best Sports Story for “Ronny,” OC Weekly
2007
San Diego Asian Film Festival Award, Best Short Documentary for “Mookey’s Story,” (Co-Director, Producer and Camera)