Jessie Findlay is an Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer and Showrunner who has spent nearly 20 years making documentary content about the people whose stories don’t always get told.
Born in Down East, Maine, Jessie spent her formative years chased around the backyard by the family’s chicken flock and attending a two-room schoolhouse. As the middle child, she honed her negotiation skills early and is still considered the family’s “straight talk express” (presumably a compliment). Her favorite childhood memories include filming make-believe stories with her siblings on a borrowed VHS camera and summer trips to her grandparents’ “camp” in Poland Spring (yes, like the water).
Though she hails from a family of educators, it was presumed Jessie would become a therapist (such a good listener!). In high school, she was a music and theater nerd, and pursued classical vocal training through college. She began her collegiate career at NYU and finished at The Johns Hopkins University where she graduated with departmental honors in Creative Writing.
Jessie moved back to New York and quickly landed her first field gig as Co-Producer for Court TV’s hit true crime series, Psychic Detectives, followed by stints at ABC News Productions, PBS, and TLC, before she settled at Lucky Duck Productions and Nickelodeon’s multiple Emmy-winning news magazine series for kids, Nick News with Linda Ellerbee (Producer). It was there that Jessie discovered her true passion – helping give kids a voice. She relished the challenge of producing segments featuring kids living in foster care, kids of undocumented parents, and kids living with HIV – and quickly earned a reputation for the compassionate and sensitive way in which she spoke to kids (often told that she “didn’t sound like an adult,” which she took as a high compliment). During her six years on the series, Jessie and her team received two Primetime Emmy Awards, the National Gracie Award, two PRISM Awards (for the depiction of mental illness and substance abuse issues in television), and the 2013 NAMIC Vision Award (celebrating the depiction of ethnic and cultural diversity).
Over the following years she worked across a range of networks and genres – from Food Network to Bravo to National Geographic – before rising to Co-Executive Producer on Animal Planet's hit follow-doc series, The Zoo in 2018. She went on to Executive Produce for that series, two seasons of spin-off The Zoo: San Diego, and served as showrunner for two seasons of The Aquarium (Animal Planet’s highest-rated freshman series of 2019) – all told, producing nearly 100 hours between the three series. In addition to her TV work, Jessie also wrote, directed, and produced content for commercial and non-profit clients including AKA NYC, The Marymount School, and HealthiNation. She then returned to her favorite subject – kids – Executive Producing for the Disney+/Nat Geo docuseries, Science Fair: The Series, and winning her third Emmy for Outstanding Science & Technology Documentary.
Jessie is a member of the Producers Guild of America, New York Women in Film and Television, and was a member of the Nantucket Film Festival Screenplay Competition Reading Committee for five years.
When she’s not chasing around her two young kids, Jessie enjoys mentoring up-and-coming producers and is an avid yogi. She lives in Brooklyn with her family; every summer they all still visit the camp in Poland Spring. It’s the best water.