Bonni Cohen

Bonni Cohen is an American documentary film producer[ 1] and director.[ 2] She is the co-founder of Actual Films[ 3] and has produced and directed an array of award-winning films.[ 4] Most recently, she co-directed, along with husband Jon Shenk, the 2024 documentary In Waves and War, which was released on Netflix in November, 2025.[ 5] She also produced the Oscar-nominated film Lead Me Home, which premiered at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival and is a Netflix Original.[ 6] She also recently co-directed Athlete A, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary[ 7] and received four nominations from the Critics’ Choice Awards.[ 8] She is the co-founder of Actual Films, the production company of the documentaries An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Audrie & Daisy, 3.5 Minutes, The Island President, Lost Boys of Sudan and The Rape of Europa.[ 9] Cohen is the co-founder of the Catapult Film Fund.[ 10]

Cohen co-directed the 2024 documentary In Waves and War.[ 5] She also co-directed Athlete A[ 11] and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.[ 12] [ 2] In 2016, Cohen co-directed the film Audrie & Daisy,[ 13] which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival[ 14] where it was acquired[ 15] by Netflix.

Cohen is the producer of The Island President,[ 16] a documentary about the first democratically elected president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed. In 2009, Cohen produced the film Wonders are Many,[ 17] directed by Jon Else, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.[ 18] Cohen co-directed Inside Guantanamo with Else.[ 19] Cohen also served as Executive Producer[ 3] of the documentary films 3.5 Minutes and Art and Craft.