I was born in Los Angeles and raised by New Yorkers. For more than a decade, I lived in San Francisco, where I attended the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and began my career as a magazine writer.
My directorial debut, Challenger: The Final Flight, earned two News & Documentary Emmy Award nominations
for Outstanding Historical Documentary and Outstanding Editing and won the Realscreen Award for Best Science & Technology Program. Produced with Bad Robot for Netflix, the four-part documentary explores the lives of the seven astronauts aboard the Challenger space shuttle and the decisions that led to the 1986 disaster.
My latest documentary is Stans, a feature I wrote, directed, and executive produced in collaboration with Eminem. Inspired by his iconic song "Stan," the film explores the artist's relationship to fame — and how his art shapes identity and serves as a lifeline. In August 2025, Stans was released theatrically on 1,500 screens in more than 48 countries before premiering at #1 on Paramount+ and becoming the platform's most-watched documentary.
I have also written and produced several acclaimed documentaries and docuseries, including Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers, which won the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary Series; What's My Name: Muhammad Ali, which won the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Long Sports Documentary; The Day Sports Stood Still, an HBO documentary about athlete activism during the pandemic, which earned a Sports Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing – Long Form; Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, directed by Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim for Netflix; and All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records, directed by Colin Hanks. The first documentary I worked on, All Things Must Pass premiered at SXSW in 2015 and was called "disarmingly intimate" by Newsweek.
In 2022, I released my first podcast. Wild Things: Siegfried & Roy is an eight-part Apple TV+ Original that I wrote, narrated, and executive produced. Named Adweek's Pop Culture Podcast of the Year, the series is currently being adapted into a scripted television series starring Jude Law & Andrew Garfield.
Beyond film, my writing has appeared in Wired, Esquire, Men's Health, The New York Times Magazine, Popular Science, Maxim, and Playboy. For nearly two decades, I've covered subjects ranging from music and culture to technology, health, and business, exploring some of the most unusual corners of American life. Along the way, I've interviewed FBI agents, bull riders, Bitcoin miners, rocket scientists, circus clowns, and getaway drivers. I'm drawn to unexpected stories — and the people pursuing impossible ambitions, navigating extraordinary circumstances, or reinventing themselves entirely.
In 2011, I was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Personal Service. In 2012, I popularized the term "oversharenting" in a Wall Street Journal essay called "The Facebook-Free Baby." In 2022, the word — coined by my wife — was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
In 2019, I published a 10,000-word narrative about an Olympic hopeful cyclist who became one of the most prolific bank robbers in American history. Co-published by Epic Magazine and Chicago Magazine, "The Bicycle Thief" was selected for the 2020 edition of Best American Sports Writing.
I'm also the writer and managing editor of Cabin Porn. Published by Little, Brown and Company, the book debuted on The New York Times bestseller list in 2015 and has since been translated into eight languages. According to Powell's Books, "It’s sweet to look at beautiful photos of woodsy cabins... But the stories about the work behind the cabins — that’s the magic."
CONTACT
MANAGEMENT: Jairo Alvarado, Jairo AT redefineent.com
REPRESENTATION: United Talent Agency, StevenLeckartTeam AT unitedtalent.com