Beth Aala

Beth Aala is an American documentary filmmaker and film producer.[ 1] [ 2]

Aala's parents emigrated from the Philippines to the United States,[ 2] where she was born. She attended Elk Grove High School in Sacramento.[ 3] Aala received a bachelor's degree from UC San Diego in both Visual Arts and Communication.[ 4]

Aala is best known for her 2013 film, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, which she co-directed and produced with comedian Mike Myers.[ 5] [ 6]

She was the co-director, with Susan Froemke and John Hoffman, of the film Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman, which premiered at the Sundance film festival in 2017.[ 7] [ 8]

Aala directed Made in Boise, which premiered in June 2019 at the AFI DOCS film festival. The film is a documentary on commercial surrogacy and follows four surrogates.[ 9] The film would get a wider release as part of PBS documentary series Independent Lens on October 16, 2019.[ 10]

In 2023 Aala directed Uncharted, a film that shows the behind the scenes of Alicia Keys' songwriting camp, "She is the Music".[ 11] The film premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.[ 12]

In 2005, Aala won an Emmy Award for co-producing I Have Tourette's but Tourette's Doesn't Have Me.[ 13] She also received Emmys for producing in the "Outstanding Children's Program" category in 2008 and 2011.[ 14]

In 2006, she won a Peabody Award for co-producing the film The Music in Me.[ 15]

In 2020, Made in Boise would be nominated for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary at the 41st News and Documentary Emmy Awards.[ 16]