Discover Top Reporters / Journalist in Joliet, Illinois, USA

I am a freelance video journalist based in Chicago. I shoot, produce, and edit as a one-woman-band. My experience spans from shooting in-studio with multi-cam set-ups, to in the field as a video reporter. My work has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, and The Weather Channel, among many others. My passion for journalism and filmmaking has also led me to pursue original short documentaries in Brazil, Singapore, and Chicago. Complex, nuanced stories of people keep me alive and creative. I aspire to use multimedia storytelling to engage people, inspire change, and disrupt normalcy.

• Documentary DP
• Sound Mixer
• Fixer
• Video Editor - News
• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Reporter / Journalist
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Video Editor - Commercial

Colin is a 2X Emmy winning cinematographer. He was the Director of Photography on When Claude Got Shot, 2022 Winner of Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking and EP'd by Snoop Dogg. He was also a Cinematographer on a Major League Baseball Brewers Commercial, 2017 Winner of Outstanding Commercial Series. Two decades of video experience with a passion for detail and communication. Colin also creates his own documentary content.

• Production Company
• Documentary DP
• Fixer
• Commercial DP
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Video Editor - Commercial
• Production Assistant
• Non-Fiction Film Director
• Reporter / Journalist
• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Drone Operator
• Corporate Videographer
• Field Producer

Stephen L. Garrett is a filmmaker based in Chicago, who collaborates with directors, producers, and production companies to develop, shoot, and edit feature-length documentaries, series, and promotional films for organizations large and small. Stephen began his filmmaking career in Madagascar as a third year Peace Corps volunteer in 2007. This experience led him to produce work for various organizations across the US and in 17 countries for clients such as the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, USAID, and the US Institute of Peace. Over his 12 year career in filmmaking, he has helped develop and produce television series that have aired on major television networks. In 2018 he coordinated coordinated post-production teams for 3 feature-length documentaries simultaneously: Nossa Chape debuted at South by Southwest 2018 and aired on Fox Sports; Momentum Generation won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Long Sports Documentary and debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival 2018 and aired on HBO; and Give Us This Day aired on AT&T Audience Network. In addition, he coordinated production and post production teams working in 13 countries for Phenoms, an internationally broadcast 6-episode documentary series about rising World Cup soccer stars for Fox Digital. In 2019, Stephen was the associate producer for Committee Film’s Investigation Discovery series Serial Killer: Devil Unchained. He is currently editing his first feature-length documentary How To Build A School in Haiti for director Jack C. Newell, which will be released in 2020. His short documentary, Mine 21, was awarded the 2019 Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media. Stephen has a BA in Conservation Studies from the University of the South.

• Documentary DP
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Creative Director
• Field Producer
• Video Editor - Commercial
• On-Air Reporter / Host
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• Production Assistant
• Reporter / Journalist
• Editorial Photographer / Photojournalist
• Fixer
• Non-Fiction Film Director
• Sound Mixer
• Event Photographer
• News Shooter / Video Journalist

Jiayan "Jenny" Shi is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker and video journalist who is passionate about stories that find shared humanity and compassion. Her debut documentary "Finding Yingying" (MTV Documentary Films) has won numerous awards including the Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival and a China Academy Award of Documentary Films, and was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy award. Jenny's work has appeared on Paramount +, MTV, BBC News, PBS NewsHour, Insider, and Bilibili. She has also contributed to work on Netflix, Discovery Channel, Tencent, and Google, among others. Jenny is a Kartemquin's Diverse Voices In Docs fellow, a Women at Sundance Adobe fellow, a Firelight fellow, a Logan Nonfiction Program fellow, and a DOC NYC "40 Under 40" filmmaker. Jenny is the co-founder and programming director of the Chicago chapter of the Video Consortium where she curates films and organizes community events for non-fiction storytellers.

• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Documentary DP
• Production Assistant
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Production Company
• Reporter / Journalist
• Video Editor - News
• Mobile Journalist / Livestreamer
• Creative Director
• Field Producer
• Corporate Videographer
• Non-Fiction Film Director

Sam Mirpoorian is an award-winning filmmaker exploring societal themes at the intersection of time, isolation, health, science, + introspection. During his undergrad + grad studies at Indiana University, he made his first doc-short, Little Warriors, which tells the story about youth activism in the space of climate policy. The film was a Grand Prize Winner at the Academy Award-Qualifying, Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis. In 2018, Sam edited + produced a doc-short, Destination Park, which examines a mobile chapel located in the heart of a desolate truck stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York + made its online premiere via The Atlantic in 2019. In 2020, Sam’s second doc-short, Sonnie, which follows the serene + poignant life of a single father raising his son, played + won awards from over 40 film festivals across the United States + is a recipient of the Kodak Motion Picture Film Bronze Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. Sonnie won three Regional Emmy® Awards and was acquired by NBC, making its broadcast premiere via Peacock in 2021. In addition to his film work, Sam has directed, shot, edited, + produced national + regional commercial/branded content campaigns for philanthropic + environmental foundations including brands such as Pharrell Williams’ IceCream, Robert Redford’s The Redford Center, the YMCA, NASCAR, Goodwill, Louisville Slugger, High & Mighty, + others.

• Video Editor - Documentary
• Documentary DP
• Non-Fiction Film Director
• Video Editor - News
• Fixer
• Commercial DP
• Production Assistant
• Creative Director
• Reporter / Journalist
• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Production Company
• Drone Operator
• Corporate Videographer

Patricia Nabong is a visual journalist who is dedicated to breaking stereotypes, covering untold stories and serving communities through visual journalism. She is currently a photojournalism fellow at City Bureau, a civic journalism lab in Chicago. In the past, she worked as a fellow at The Medill Justice Project, where she produced an interactive visual investigation of Washington D.C.’s vacant properties, which was a finalist for the 2017 Peter Lisagor Award. She was also a student fellow at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, which funded her short documentary and photo essay about the psychological toll of the drug war in the Philippines. Her photos, articles and videos have appeared in the American Documentary Film Festival, The Weather Channel, Seeker, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Reader, Chicago Defender, WBEZ Chicago, City Bureau, Narratively, The A.V. Club, The Riveter, Climbing Magazine, Balitang America and Medill Reports, to name a few. She is one of the 2018 nominees for the World Press Photo Foundation's Joop Swart Masterclass. She earned her master's degree in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism where she received the Harrington Award for Videography/Broadcast. She also won a Chicago College Emmy for a video she produced there.  Prior to starting her graduate studies at Medill, she worked as a freelance multimedia journalist for online news sites Rappler, Union of Catholic Asian News and ABS-CBN News and as a part-time photography teacher at St. Paul College, Pasig. She graduated summa cum laude as the batch valedictorian of the class of 2015, with a degree in Film from the College of Mass Communication of the University of the Philippines. She is a member of Kappa Tau Alpha, the national journalism honor society; the Photojournalists’ Center of the Philippines; and the Tokwa Collective.

• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Commercial DP
• Video Editor - News
• Video Editor - Commercial
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Reporter / Journalist
• Editorial Photographer / Photojournalist
• Documentary DP
• Sound Mixer
• Music Composer
• Fixer
• Sound Designer
• Translator

I have been a story teller and seeker of truth my entire life. I have been working as a broadcast journalist for more than 15 years. I have been focusing on investigative stories and in-depth pieces for the past several years. I seek out stories that will engage viewers and leave them with something to remember, to add knowledge that can enhance their life in the long term in addition to entertaining them in the short term. I like to spotlight injustices to bring about awareness. These kinds of messages can impact people in a way that motivates them to improve the world. I like to spotlight potential dangers, especially ones involving children, because they are the world's future. My perspective on issues is influenced by my personal life. I am a devoted mother and caring wife. I am a second generation Italian-American from the western suburbs of Chicago. I am a sports fan, bicycle rider, and environmentalist who eschews consumerism but is trapped in the pitfalls of parenthood.

• Documentary DP
• Sound Mixer
• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Commercial DP
• Reporter / Journalist
• On-Air Reporter / Host
• Video Editor - News
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Video Editor - Commercial

I'm a veteran communications professional primarily with a newspaper background, but also university communications and freelance magazine work. The bulk of my writing career has been in feature and sports writing. In features, my areas of specialty have been food (primarily cheese), local history and music. As a sports writer, I specialized in women's sports and was a nationally recognized women's basketball reporter. I sought and continue to seek out-of-the ordinary sports stories and topics. As an editor, I have led a sports copy desk, served as a copy editor in news, sports and features departments and had freelance copy editing/proofreading work for cookbooks, alumni publications and other manuscript work. I'm Wisconsin-based and my newspaper career includes the Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, USA Today and the Des Moines Register. Freelance work includes Isthmus, an alt weekly newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin; Milwaukee Magazine; dsm and ia, two regional magazines based in Des Moines, Iowa.

• Reporter / Journalist
• Copy Editor
• Fixer

It's as simple as this: I'm passionate about words. Writing them, editing them, translating them, reading them. In a journey that’s taken me from the Midwest to Spain and back, I have gone from journalism to digital marketing, spanning print (newspaper, magazine), digital (articles, blogs, website copy, social media, email marketing, ads, SEO), B2B, and B2C. I have 13 years of writing and editing experience, 11 years of translation, and 10 years of digital marketing in tech startups, specializing in SEO-optimized content creation, management, and strategy. In my freelance work, I'm a natural-born storyteller whose niche is language, culture, travel, and tourism—especially after spending almost my entire 20s in Europe. I am meticulous, with an unmatched level of attention to detail, and I care deeply about the quality of my work. I feel strongly about creating organizational systems and getting processes down in writing. I enjoy creating guidelines and templates that help everyone succeed. (Yet, I also believe that you cannot schedule creativity and must embrace how each day guides you while still accomplishing what’s necessary.) I believe in open, honest, and transparent communication in all facets of my life, including the workplace. I perform best in a supportive work environment that allows employees to shine and work autonomously, based on mutual respect and trust. I thrive in companies that treat their employees like human beings and understand the importance of a healthy work-life balance, including adequate time to relax, disconnect, and enjoy life as we're meant to. Strengths Finder: Empathizer, Storyteller, Strategist, Coach, Commander Enneagram: 1w2 Adobe Creative Test: Visionary

• Copywriter
• Content Strategist
• Translator
• Copy Editor
• Reporter / Journalist

I am a filmmaker and photographer with eight years of experience in short film production, promotional video work, documentary production, event photography, interviewing, and script writing. I am the founder and President of EHFAR Films, which I established in March of 2013. My experience as a videographer and photographer has granted me the opportunity to travel and film internationally, specifically across Italy, Turkey, England, and Rwanda. My team (ft. Award-winning DP Alex Halstead and Director Laura Martinelli) has partnered with DePaul University, Big Picture Learning, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), Southern New Hampshire University, The Met, The Adventures of Mr. Clown, Paul Mitchell of N. New England, YMCA, MassChallenge, WEI and has shot a combined 40 short films.

• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Documentary DP
• Commercial DP
• Creative Director
• Production Assistant
• Video Editor - Commercial
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Reporter / Journalist
• Editorial Photographer / Photojournalist

Thatch Films is a full service boutique production company specializing in documentary, commercial, corporate and film projects. We are a full service company offering pre-production, production, post-production, multimedia and animation services. We work with agencies and direct clients around the world to tell stories that explore our common humanity, our capacity for joy, and our search for meaning. We work with clients from conception to delivery and are dedicated to open communication and a holistic artistic approach. * Hiring During COVID-19: We are skilled in practicing and maintaining safe production practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.*

• Production Company
• Creative Director
• Post-Production Manager
• Documentary DP
• Corporate Videographer
• Senior Producer / Project Manager
• Non-Fiction Film Director
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Drone Operator
• Line Producer / On-Location
• Production Assistant
• Video Editor - Commercial
• Fixer
• Field Producer
• Commercial DP
• Reporter / Journalist
• News Shooter / Video Journalist

I'm a video journalist based in Chicago, IL. I currently work as a producer and on-air contributor for You & Me This Morning, a morning show airing weekdays 6 to 9 a.m. on WCIU. Before joining WCIU, I worked for 2 1/2 years as a reporter for DNAinfo Chicago, an award-winning neighborhood news website. I've also produced videos for Al Jazeera Plus, Monocle, and Bill Moyers. I graduated with a Master's from Columbia Journalism School in New York and am an alum of Teach for America (DC '09) and University of Kansas.

• Documentary DP
• Sound Mixer
• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Commercial DP
• On-Air Reporter / Host
• Reporter / Journalist
• Video Editor - News
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Video Editor - Commercial

Video journalist with five years of experience working for TV news affiliates, including CBS in Milwaukee. I also have three years experience in Public Relations for high-growth companies in Chicago where I've developed integrated communications strategies and produced corporate videos. I am a member of the Forbes Communications Council.

• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Commercial DP
• Reporter / Journalist
• Mobile Journalist / Livestreamer
• On-Air Reporter / Host
• Video Editor - News
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Video Editor - Commercial
• Production Company

Joel Van Haren is an award-winning journalist and Emmy Award®-nominated cinematographer. Their cinematography has been featured extensively on Al Jazeera's Emmy Award®- and Peabody Award-winning program, Fault Lines. Joel's work has been featured by BBC, The New York Times, The Players' Tribune, PBS, and VICE.

• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Commercial DP
• Documentary DP
• Fixer
• Video Editor - News
• Sound Mixer
• Reporter / Journalist
• Editorial Photographer / Photojournalist
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Video Editor - Commercial

I am a fourth-year journalism student at Northwestern University pursuing a full-time career in sportswriting with a focus on furthering coverage of women’s professional and collegiate athletics. Always looking for remote freelance work and/or opportunities in Chicagoland or San Diego. Messages are open.

• Reporter / Journalist
• Senior Editor

Gamal Gasim, associate professor of Middle East Studies and Political Science at Grand Valley State University, earned his PhD in political science from Texas Tech. Before Grand Valley, he taught at Texas Tech, University of Wisconsin-Madison during the summers of 2006 and 2007, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Beloit College during the summers of 2008 and 2009 respectively. His research interests include comparative politics, Middle East politics, Islamic civilization, Islamic political parties and Muslim Americans. He has contributed articles to Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Politics & Religion, Electoral Studies, the Journal of Political Science Education, the Journal of Islamic Perspective and Culture, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics and other journals. He also writes for Al Jazeera English, the Arab Daily News, Huffington Post, and Yemen Times.

• Copywriter
• Reporter / Journalist

Hi, I'm Jonathan. I'm a visual storyteller who believes the camera is a tool that can shake the foundations of power. I try focus the lens on people building a better world. I've worked and learned video production with some amazing organizations and programs. I owe them a lot for their guidance. As an alum of UW-Madison in Political Science, I became an elder fellow and producer/editor/DP at UW-Milwaukee's documentary program, doc|UWM. I then became an intern/production assistant with Al Jazeera's Emmy Award winning program Fault Lines. I worked as the Production Coordinator of the Emmy award winning Kennedy Center Honors Films. I was filming in Baltimore during the uprising after the police killing of Freddie Gray, when I was hired to work with The Laura Flanders Show - a economic and social justice program that focuses on solutions to systemic issues plaguing the United States. I eventually became a Senior Producer and Co-Creative Director of the show. My freelance work includes video and producing with AJ+, The Guardian, Fusion, Frontline, Voces de la Frontera, PBS Newshour, PBS (Quiet Pictures), the Center for Investigative Reporting, Voice of America - Eurasia, and National Partnership for New Americans. For the last five years I've been Co-Director, DP, and Co-Editor of the feature documentary film The Sacred and The Snake. Our film collective and I received the Storyhunter award for "Best Untold Story of 2016" for our reporting at Standing Rock with Fusion. We lived at the resistance camp from August 2016, until it was raided in late February 2017. We are incredibly grateful for the support of communities of Indigenous peoples and Water Protectors. It's been humbling. We've received support from The Milwaukee Film Brico-Forward Fund, The Berkeley Film Foundation, International Documentary Association's (IDA), Bay Area Video Coalition, IFP, Camden International Film Festival fellowship, and Doclands. I enjoy times with family, friends, and the outdoors. I am passionate about telling stories of risk takers and the fight, but definitely welcome lighter stories. I look forward to working with you and making something special together. All the best, Jonathan

• Documentary DP
• News Shooter / Video Journalist
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• Video Editor - Documentary
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• Video Editor - News
• Reporter / Journalist

Yana Kunichoff is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist covering inequality, urban issues and social movements. She's covered stories from the Arab Spring protests in Bahrain to a chronicling of the human casualties of rapidly disappearing affordable housing in Chicago for news organizations including Al Jazeera America, DemocracyNow! and In These Times. She is currently a producer for Scrappers Film Group, which provides film production work to journalistic, documentary, and socially motivated clientele using cinéma vérité and naturalistic techniques. Scrappers Film Group takes their name from their inaugural documentary Scrappers, which chronicles the story of two men who collect scrap in Chicago’s alleyways and was named one of Roger Ebert’s best documentaries of 2010. Most recently Scrappers Film Group created Central Standard, a web series about America’s institutions in transition for PBS Digital Studios.

• Documentary DP
• Editorial Photographer / Photojournalist
• Reporter / Journalist
• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Video Editor - News
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Video Editor - Commercial

Kulsoom Khan is a freelance multimedia journalist currently based in the Greater Chicago area. She has worked with Voice of America, Chicago Tribune, the Associated Press, AFPTV and China Plus News, the digital platform of China Radio International. Kulsoom has experience in print, digital, and broadcast platforms in both local and national newsrooms in Pennsylvania, New York, and Washington D.C. Among other news outlets, she has also worked for the Times Leader, PBS Newshour, and MSNBC. Kulsoom also served as a research assistant for the biography: “The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism”, winner of the 2018 Sperber Prize. In 2014, she reported on the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombings from Boston and the growing Latino community in New Orleans as part of a special project sponsored by New York University’s Reporting The Nation graduate program. Kulsoom is specifically interested in how politics and international conflicts affect people as well as human rights, terrorism and immigrant communities. Regardless of the medium or the topic, storytelling is an art and she hopes to do it justice through her endeavors.

• Reporter / Journalist
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• Field Producer
• TV News Producer
• Production Assistant
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• Copy Editor
• Video Editor - News

I have a passion for visual storytelling. I cut my teeth in photography by covering sports for a small newspaper in Chicago. But I didn't do it by covering prep sports...I spent two years traveling the country covering the UFC. A few years later, I found myself at the Medill School of Journalism honing my video skills and added a new dimension to my passion. While I love sports, I'm not a one-trick pony. I'm a journalist...the world interests me. Everything from social justice to technology...I don't want to limit myself to just one beat.

• News Shooter / Video Journalist
• Documentary DP
• Video Editor - News
• Reporter / Journalist
• Editorial Photographer / Photojournalist
• On-Air Reporter / Host
• Video Editor - Documentary
• Video Editor - Commercial