Joan Meyerson has an extensive, award-winning career as a writer, producer, and director of television documentaries and television programs.
One of her first Associate Producer credits was for the Academy Award-nominatedSay Goodbye. She has also been honored with two Writers Guild of America Awards (nominated for a third), and other awards include a Cine Golden Eagle, Chris Plaque from the Columbus Film Festival, and Blue Ribbon from the American Film and Video Festival.
Born in Los Angeles, Joan Meyerson graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She also studied at the University of Mexico and the Sorbonne in Paris. Why she left Paris, she has yet to understand, but she had already been accepted into Berkeleys's Graduate School of History.
She had completed one semester of graduate school when she came home to Los Angeles for the summer, and lucked into a job as an Associate Producer on a Talk Show. It was exciting, dramatic; she met and booked everyone from Phyllis Diller to Ronald Reagan. At the end of the summer, she applied for an honorary leave of absence from Berkeley.
She has yet to return.
Her love of documentaries, television, and writing began with her next job at the now legendary David Wolper Productions. Among her many Wolper credits were the Academy Award-nominated Say Goodbye,The Explorers, Big Cats, Little Cats, and the series,Legends, Icons & Superstars of the 20th Century.
Meyerson went on to develop an extensive and varied background as a television writer:
In children’s programming,her credits include a CBS pilot, animation and live-action shows, and interactive game programs.
She produced, directed and wrote multiple episodes of the series ZooLife with Jack Hanna, The Hunt for Amazing Treasures, and Things That Go Bump.
For PBS, her writing credits ranged from the special Michiyo and Kelly: A Quest for Education, to the PBS Empires, Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire (IDA best-limited series nomination). She also co-wrote and co-produced the PBS top-rated miniseries Walking the Bible, based on the New York Times best-seller of the same name.
She has written The National Memorial Day Concert, one of PBS’ top rated Variety/Musical Specials,for many years, for which she was honored with two Writers Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Script.
Her work has taken her on location throughout the U.S. and in Japan, Iwo Jima, Vietnam, Mexico, Guatemala,England,and the Netherlands. Turning the tables, she also produced programs on California for French Television.
Meyerson is well-known in the entertainment industry world:
-- a former board member of both Women in Film and the International Documentary Association.
-- a member of the Directors Guild of America
-- a member of the Writers Guild of America, serving five terms on the Board of Directors, and was nominated to run for President of the Guild in 2015.
-- Meyerson has been a guest lecturer on the art and craft of writing documentaries at UCLA and USC. She has moderated numerous panels representing the Writers Guild, Writers Guild Foundation, and the International Documentary Association at seminars, conferences and festivals. Married to attorney Mark Meyerson, formerly Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs, at Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, they live in Valley Village with their miniature Schnauzer, Jazz.