Michael Rosenfeld

Profile

Michael Rosenfeld is an award-winning filmmaker and writer with extensive experience in documentary production and digital media. As an executive producer and production company president, he has helmed a number of landmark broadcast series, including National Geographic Explorer and the National Geographic Specials. In a career spanning network, cable, and public television, Rosenfeld has won dozens of industry awards, including 11 News & Documentary Emmys. He currently serves as Vice President of National Production for Twin Cities PBS.

From 2011 to 2015, Rosenfeld launched and led Tangled Bank Studios, a production company specializing in films on science. Under the auspices of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Tangled Bank established an international reputation for exceptional films supported by high-impact outreach.  The three-part PBS series Your Inner Fish, executive produced by Rosenfeld, was widely praised. “This is what smart television looks like,” the LA Times wrote.  For his work on the series, Rosenfeld won the prestigious Kavli Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Keck Award from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Before his work at Tangled Bank Studios Rosenfeld was president of National Geographic Television, where he oversaw the production of more than 120 hours of documentary programming a year for National Geographic Channel, PBS, and broadcasters worldwide. He was responsible for such signature projects as The Gospel of Judas for the National Geographic Channel; Strange Days on Planet Earth for PBS; and Pearl Harbor: Legacy of Attack for NBC.

Rosenfeld is the former chair of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, an internationally known gathering of natural history storytellers. Under his leadership, Jackson grew to include a regular conservation summit, bringing filmmakers and conservationists together.

As a producer and director, Rosenfeld has filmed on active volcanoes, sidled up to crocodiles in India, and spent a month in Borneo directing a film about the death rites of the Ngaju Dayak people. He has written on politics and travel for the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and National
Geographic Traveler.

In his current role at Twin Cities PBS, Rosenfeld oversees all aspects of the station’s national production, including specials and multi-part series about history, science, and society. Recent productions include Going to War, The Dictator’s Playbook, When Whales Walked, and Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page.