Ezra Benjamin Edelman (born August 6, 1974) is an American documentary producer and director. He won the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Academy Honorary Award, Special Awards to ''Kukan'' and ''Target for Tonight''. The ...

and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming for directing '' O.J.: Made in America'' (2016). He has also directed ''The Book of Prince'', a documentary on the musician

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

, that remains unreleased.

Early life and education

Edelman was born in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. He is the son of Marian Wright Edelman, former civil rights leader and aide to

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

and founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, and Peter Edelman, former aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, former Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation, and professor at

Georgetown University Law Center Georgetown University Law Center is the Law school in the United States, law school of Georgetown University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law ...

. His father is

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. He has two brothers, Joshua, an educational administrator, and

Jonah Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor proph ...

, co-founder and CEO of Stand for Children. His parents were the third interracial marriage in Virginia after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the state's anti-miscegenation law in ''

Loving v. Virginia ''Loving v. Virginia'', 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that the laws banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to ...

''. His paternal great-grandfather was a Polish rabbi who was killed during the Holocaust and his maternal grandfather was a Baptist minister; he was raised in both faiths. Edelman graduated from Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. in July 1992, before going on to earn his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Career

Documentary projects

Edelman is best known for producing and directing the Academy Award-winning 2016 documentary film '' O.J.: Made in America'' for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

's ''

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series und ...

''. In his Oscar acceptance speech, Edelman dedicated the award to Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, whom

O. J. Simpson Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024), also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional American football, football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) ...

had been tried and acquitted of murdering in 1995. Previously he directed three

HBO Sports Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based ...

documentaries: '' Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals'', ''The Curious Case of Curt Flood'' (2011) and the

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

-winning '' Brooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush''. He also wrote and directed a special on the former

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

called ''Requiem for the Big East,'' also a part of the ''

'' series. Edelman produced '' Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas'', an

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

documentary series that ran for two seasons. In 2024, Edelman produced '' Stax: Soulsville U.S.A.'' for HBO, revolving around

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in September 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. ...

. and '' Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae'' for

Onyx Collective Onyx Collective is a content brand owned and operated by Disney Entertainment, which primarily consists of projects from creators of color and other underrepresented groups. The brand was first launched on May 17, 2021, with several projects un ...

and

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

, revolving around Indigenous activist Anna Mae Aquash. In 2018, it was reported that Edelman would be developing a biopic with writer Rowan Ricardo Phillips for

Legendary Entertainment Legendary Entertainment, LLC (also known as Legendary Pictures or simply Legendary) is an American mass media and film production company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull. The company has often collaborated with the major stu ...

, based on the life of baseball player

Roberto Clemente Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (; August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, primarily as a right fielder. On December ...

''The Book of Prince''

Over five years Edelman developed ''The Book of Prince'' a nine-hour, six-part documentary about the musician

. He was recruited to the project for

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

in 2019 by Lisa Nishimura, then vice president of independent film and documentary features, with the promise of access to "the vault," Prince's archive of unreleased material. This was negotiated by the bank administering Prince's estate; Netflix reportedly paid tens of millions of dollars for the access in a deal that gave Edelman and Netflix editorial control of the resulting film. However, while the project was underway, Nishimura was laid off, and the estate changed hands, with former Prince attorney L. Londell McMillan leading objections to the depiction of Prince in the documentary and seeking to block the film's release. In September 2024, ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...

'' reported, "As of today, there is no indication that the film will ever come out." In February 2025, Prince's estate officially announced that the documentary would never be released and, instead, a new documentary would be produced without Edelman. Edelman said in a March 2025 interview that it would never be released because he doesn't "feel like getting sued."

Personal life

Edelman lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edelman, Ezra Television producers from Massachusetts American television directors African-American television directors African-American Jews Living people 1974 births Directors of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners Producers of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners Mass media people from Boston American people of Polish-Jewish descent Primetime Emmy Award winners Directors Guild of America Award winners 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people