Jon Shenk

JON SHENK is an Academy Award®-nominated Director and Cinematographer, as well as the co-founder of Actual Films. Recent work includes directing In Waves & War with his partner Bonni Cohen, and directing and producing The White House Effect – both of which premiered at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. Jon also was the Cinematographer for Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore which premiered at Sundance 2025. Prior he co-directed the Oscar®-nominated short film Lead Me Home, which premiered at Telluride and is a Netflix Original. Previously, Shenk and Bonni Cohen co-directed Athlete A (Netflix), which won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary and was nominated for five Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, winning for Best Sports Documentary.

Before that Shenk co-directed and lensed An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (Participant), which premiered on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival. The film was shortlisted for the Oscars and was a BAFTA nominee for Best Documentary. The year before that Shenk co-directed and photographed the Peabody Award winner Audrie & Daisy (Netflix), which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. 

Shenk directed The Island President (Goldwyn Films), winner of the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award and the International Documentary Association’s Pare Lorentz Award. Previous work includes serving as the D.P. on the Academy Award winner Smile Pinki and winning  an Emmy for “Blame Somebody Else” (PBS.). In his early career, Shenk won an Independent Spirit Award for directing Lost Boys of Sudan (Shadow Distribution/PBS).  Prior to Actual Films, Jon did in-house documentary work for LucasFilm and graduated from the Stanford Documentary Program. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Doc Branch.