Jyllian Gunther is an American director, writer, and film and television producer. Known for her impactful storytelling across film, television, and digital media. Her work often explores themes of social justice, history, and education, earning critical acclaim and recognition, including a Christopher Award and a National Emmy.
She served as director and co-executive producer for the HBO documentary series Swiping America and an untitled pilot for Conde Nast and Amazon. Previously, she was co-executive producer, director, and writer on multiple episodes of the NBC series, Who Do You Think You Are, featuring Allison Janney, Nick Offerman, and Billy Porter. She won a Christopher Award for her work as executive producer and director of the History/A&E documentary, Black Patriots: Heroes of the American Revolution, featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.[1] She was producer for ABC’s The Last Defence, a seven-part docuseries executive-produced by Viola Davis. She was director, producer, and writer for six short films for the JigSaw, Amazon, and The New Yorker magazine series, The New Yorker Presents. Her first documentary, Pull Out, produced by Wren Arthur, was an recipient of a national Emmy award Her second feature documentary, The New Public,[2] aired on PBS and is distributed by Kino Lorber with a curriculum created by Teachers College at Columbia University.
Gunther served as reporter and co-producer for NPR's This American Life program. She is the recipient of a national Emmy award for writing and directing a series of public service announcements for PBS.[3] She began her television career as a staff writer for Nickelodeon. She was a freelance writer/producer of numerous promos and producer/director on various docuseries for Discovery Channel, TLC, MTV, AMC, IFC, and We TV, and other networks.