Marc Smerling

Smerling is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker who produced the landmark documentary Capturing The Friedmans (2003), which won 18 major international prizes including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. He co-wrote and produced the narrative feature All Good Things (2010) starring Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, and Frank Langella, and produced the Sundance darling documentary Catfish (2010) released by Universal Pictures. He is executive producer of Catfish, the TV series. He produced The Jinx, a six-part series for HBO (2015) about the scion of one of New York City's richest real estate families accused of three murders over twenty five years. Marc's first podcast series, Crimetown: Providence landed atop many 2017 podcast top ten lists, including The New York Times and The Atlantic Monthly. The Ringer called it "cinema for your ears." Interview Magazine said it was an "ambitious, anthropological epic." The second season of Crimetown (2019) featured Detroit's controversial mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is currently serving a 28 year sentence in federal prison. Crimetown has almost 100 million downloads worldwide. Smerling also produced The Ballad Of Billy balls, ranked No. 2 on Atlantic Monthly's top 100 podcasts of 2019, and the RFK Tapes (2018). Both Crimetown Providence and The Ballad Of Billy balls are being developed for television series at major studios. Marc began his career in documentaries as the associate producer of Gangs, Cops & Drugs with Tom Brokaw and The New Hollywood, both for NBC. He also served as US producer for news and docs for Berlusconi Television. He is a graduate of the film school at USC, where his thesis documentary, Driving The American Dream, won a Nissan Focus Award and a Gold Eagle. He went to the Newhouse and Maxwell Schools at Syracuse University, where he earned a dual degree in written journalism and international relations.