Episode 1:
Simon Chinn
Double Oscar®-winning producer Simon Chinn is responsible for some of the most successful feature documentaries of recent years. In 2005, he conceived and produced his first theatrical feature documentary, MAN ON WIRE. It went on to win over 40 international awards including the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film and the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature. A string of award-winning feature documentaries followed including PROJECT NIM, THE IMPOSTER, THE GREEN PRINCE, GARNET’S GOLD, BOLSHOI BABYLON and SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN which also won a BAFTA and an Academy Award® and made over $20m at the international box office. In 2015 he teamed up with his old school friend Louis Theroux to produce MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE, Theroux’s first theatrical doc. It grossed £1.1 million at the UK box office, making it one of the highest-grossing feature docs of all time in the UK.
Simon launched Lightbox in 2014 with his LA-based cousin, Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn, focused on producing high-end non-fiction – series, feature docs and shorts – for multiple platforms. Its feature doc on the 1992 LA riots, LA 92, for National Geographic, won a primetime Emmy and was shortlisted for an Academy Award®. Recent multi-part series include Sins of Our Mother for Netflix; Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine for Showtime; Hip Hop Uncovered for FX/Hulu; Curse of the Chippendales for Amazon UK and Discovery+ US; hit Netflix series Sophie: A Murder in West Cork; returning true crime series Till Death do us Part for Investigation Discovery; Diagnosis, an innovative Netflix Original eight-part documentary series produced in association with The New York Times; and Spector, a four-part documentary series for Showtime. Lightbox’s latest feature documentaries are TORN, which premiered at the Telluride International Film Festival and recently debuted on Disney+; THE PRINCESS, which premiered on the opening night of the Sundance Film Festival and is the first theatrical release documentary about Princess Diana for Sky & HBO; and THE FASTEST WOMAN ON EARTH for HBO Max, which chronicles the extraordinary life of Land-Speed racer Jessi Combs.