Lauren Lazin is an award-winning filmmaker whose first feature film, Tupac: Resurrection was nominated for a 2005 Academy Award. Her follow-up film, I'm Still Here: Real Diaries of Young People Who Lived During the Holocaust was nominated for two 2006 Emmy Awards, and was named Best Documentary by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
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Lazin is also an Executive Producer for The U.S. vs. John Lennon, which was distributed theatrically by Lionsgate Entertainment, and for Jihad for Love (a feature film about gay Muslims) which premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. It recently won a GLAAD award for Outstanding Documentary.
Her most recent film, Last Days of Left Eye, was the opening night movie for the 2007 Urban World and Atlanta Film festivals. It premiered on VH1 in the spring of 2007 to critical acclaim and stellar ratings.
She is executive producing the documentary film Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America for VH1, and the Teen Nick Awards (hosted by Nick Cannon and featuring Justin Timberlake, Hayden Panettiere and Alicia Keyes) set for air in late 2009.
Lazin directed and executive produced the landmark television event Get Schooled: You Have the Right, which aired on 33 cable channels September 8, 2009. The documentary features Kelly Clarkson, Lebron James, and President Barack Obama.
Lazin is also directing a feature documentary film about the rock band The Police, as told from the point of view of its celebrated guitarist, Andy Summers. The film is being produced by Nicolas Cage and Yari Films, and is based on Summers’ memoir One Train Later.
Lazin’s first film, The Flapper Story (1985), premiered at the Museum of Modern Art’s New Directors/New Films series and won a Student Academy Award. Her documentary Journey of Dr. Dre was nominated for two 2001 Emmy Awards.
Lazin has directed, produced, written and edited over forty documentaries for MTV and PBS. In 1990, she created Sex in the 90’s, which became MTV’s longest running documentary series--now a cult favorite among young audiences. In 1992, she formed the MTV News and Specials department where she directed, produced and executive produced the documentary series MTV Rockumentary (including bio-pics on The Who, Robbie Robertson, The B-52’s, Janet Jackson and many others), MTV Cribs, Diary, My Super Sweet 16, and award-winning MTV News specials on topics ranging from drug abuse and racism, to religious intolerance and sexual health.
Lazin is executive producing documentary series and specials for a variety of MTV Networks. Her series Transgeneration (a co-production of Logo and The Sundance Channel) was awarded Best Documentary at the 2006 GLAAD Awards. Her documentary series Rags To Riches profiled Snoop Dogg, Macy Gray, Akon and Nick Cannon, and was nominated for a 2007 NAMIC Award.
She created and oversees This Movie is Me for MTV and the hit series Dissed for MTV Mobile. Other recent series of note include Creep me Out for MTV, Born Country for CMT, and Coming Out Stories for Logo (2007 IDA Award nominee)
Lazin also oversees special episodes of True Life, a critically acclaimed documentary series she created about social issues affecting young people, as well as many of MTV’s pro-social documentaries. She won a 2006 Environmental Media Award for her special Break the Addiction. In 1999 the network’s anti-violence campaign Fight For Your Rights was awarded an Emmy.
Outside of MTV, Lazin has directed films for the National Organization for Women, induction pieces for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum (for the Supremes and the Rolling Stones), and an award-winning documentary, Seven Deadly Sins, which was featured on PBS’s experimental television series, Alive From Off Center.
Her films have also won Ace Awards, Monitor Awards, and Cine Golden Eagles, with honors for Best Directing and Best Editing. The National Association of Minorities in Communications, the NAACP, and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency have honored her work. She also received the Ryan White Youth Service Award and the Ribbon of Hope Award for her outstanding contributions to the fight against teen HIV/AIDS. In 1995, Fight Back, her film about child sexual abuse, was featured in a special screening for Congress.
She is prominently featured in the reference books The Art of Documentary Film (2005), The Documentary Filmmakers Handbook (2006) and Tupac Remembered (2008), and has been a guest lecturer for documentary film classes at Duke and Stanford Universities.
Lazin graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Smith College in 1982 and received a Master’s Degree in Documentary Film Production from Stanford University in 1985. She recently received an honorary doctorate from Smith College. In 1996 the Women’s College Coalition named Lazin as a “Role Model” and featured her in their national Ad Council campaign promoting women’s education.