Sheila Nevins

Nevins was born to a Jewish family[8] on the Lower East Side of Manhattan[1] in New York City to Stella Nevins (née Rosenberg),[9] a chemist, and Benjamin Nevins, a Russian immigrant post office worker who was also a bookie. Nevins' family was very poor and her mother suffered from an acute form of Raynaud's disease, which resulted in amputations of her limbs, and scleroderma.[10] Nevins has a younger sister (born 1946) who is a doctor.

Due to the generosity of her uncle, who was a wealthy inventor, Nevins attended private schools growing up.[11][12] Nevins attended Little Red School House and the High School of Performing Arts in New York City.

She received a BA in English from Barnard College in 1960. In 1963 she received an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama, where she was one of two women in the directing program.[1][13]

In the 1960s, Nevins began her career at the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C.. She was hired to play a secretary in the USIA TV series called Adventures in English, which was created to teach English vocabulary, which her character repeated, in foreign countries.[1] Nevins then worked as a researcher, cataloging historical footage about World War II at the Library of Congress. Nevins said that this immersive work inspired her to shift focus from the fictional world of theater to the fact-based world of documented in film.[14]

From 1970 to 1973, after moving back to New York, Nevins apprenticed with director Don Mischer and producer Bob Squire. Nevins then got a job as a researcher on Al Perlmutter's on the groundbreaking Channel 13 TV show The Great American Dream Machine, eventually working her way up to doing segments and "man on the street" interviews. Nevins also worked as a director.[15] Inspired by the film Salesman, she hired Albert and David Maysles to direct parts of the show.[12][16]

In 1973, Nevins was a Field Producer for The Reasoner Report on ABC News.

From 1973 to 1975, Nevins wrote for Time-Life Films. She worked briefly for 20/20. Nevins declined Don Hewitt's invitation to be a producer for 60 Minutes.[17]

In 1975 she began working as a writer and producer for the Children's Television Workshop. She also worked at Scribner making recordings of books for blind people. Nevins was a researcher then associate producer for The Great American Dream Machine on National Educational Television.

In 1978 and 1979, Nevins was a producer for the CBS News magazine Who's Who.

In 1963, Nevins married a lawyer who also attended Yale. Though she wanted to pursue a theater career, her husband wanted her to be home evenings and weekends, forcing her to find a daytime job. The marriage ended in divorce.[14][28]

In 1972, Nevins married investment banker Sidney Koch. The pair had a home in Litchfield, Connecticut and an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. They have one son, David Koch (born 1980).[29] She has discussed her son's struggle with Tourette syndrome and her struggle to be a working mother with a son who was ill.[17] Nevins has said that the 2007 HBO series, Addiction, was inspired by her son's struggles with substance abuse.[13]

Nevins produced an HBO documentary about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire called Triangle: Remembering the Fire, to which she had a personal connection, which she found out about after seeing the documentary Schmatta. Nevins' great-aunt Celia Gittlin, a 17-year-old immigrant from Russia, had died in the fire.[30]

Nevins enjoys theater and is an admirer of Gloria Steinem, who she has deemed "next to my mother, the most important woman I’ve ever met."[31]

• 2000: Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame
• 2008: Gotham Awards, Tribute Award – shared with Penélope Cruz, Melvin Van Peebles, and Gus Van Sant
• 2011: Directors Guild of America, Power 100[32]
• 2013: Women's Project Theater, Woman of Achievement Award[33]
• 2013: International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Visionary Leadership Award

• 1981: She’s Nobody’s Baby: The History of American Women in the 20th Century – HBO and Ms. magazine
• 1983-1985: Braingames – creator, executive producer
• 1991-2005: America Undercover – executive producer
• 1995: One Survivor Remembers – senior producer
• 1997: 4 Little Girls – executive producer
• 2001: Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen – executive producer

• Nevins, Sheila (foreword by) (2007). Hoffman, John; Froemke, Susan (eds.). Addiction: Why Can't They Just Stop?: New Knowledge, New Treatments, New Hope. New York: Rodale, Inc. ISBN 978-1-609-61697-7. OCLC 894934005.
• Nevins, Sheila (2017). You Don't Look Your Age... and Other Fairy Tales. New York: Flatiron Books. ISBN 978-1-250-11132-6. OCLC 1033473012.

• Cunningham, Megan (2005). "Producing: Sheila Nevins: Collaborating with Directors". The Art of the Documentary: Fifteen Conversations with Leading Directors, Cinematographers, Editors, and Producers. San Francisco: New Riders. ISBN 978-0-133-76497-0. OCLC 869792233.
• Dunn, Edwina (2017). "Sheila Nevins". The Female Lead: Women Who Shape Our World. London: Ebury Press. ISBN 978-1-473-52945-8. OCLC 992169535.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sheila Nevins.

• Sheila Nevins at IMDb
• Sheila Nevins at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Profile of Nevins at The Paley Center for Media