Apograph Productions is a documentary production company based in Brooklyn, New York. Since our founding in 2008, Apograph has won a duPont-Columbia Award, a Writers' Guild of America Award, a Western Heritage Award, a Western Writers of America Award, an IDA Award for Best Documentary, along with several Emmy nominations.
Michelle Smawley
Director
Director
Veteran director Michelle Smawley most recently ran a year-long series for a statewide initiative for WNET. She was responsible for launching long form and documentary series programming. She was the founding Executive Producer for TRAX, the first podcast network for preteens. The network launched on PRX and was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. TRAX earned nominations from The Webbys, The Ambies and the 2021 Peabody Awards.
Smawley is an award-winning director, series developer and educator. She has worked with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, Sundance, HBO, NowThis, SONY Pictures, National Geographic and many others.
Smawley is an adjunct professor at NYU. She has also served on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism and the Graduate Program in Social Documentary at the School of Visual Arts. She attended the graduate journalism program at the University of Missouri and earned a Bachelor of Arts from New York University.
Smawley is an award-winning director, series developer and educator. She has worked with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, Sundance, HBO, NowThis, SONY Pictures, National Geographic and many others.
Smawley is an adjunct professor at NYU. She has also served on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism and the Graduate Program in Social Documentary at the School of Visual Arts. She attended the graduate journalism program at the University of Missouri and earned a Bachelor of Arts from New York University.
Rob Rapley
Writer
Writer
Rob’s recent biography of singer and civil rights icon Marian Anderson was described by the Wall Street Journal as “a moving tribute to a remarkable figure” and by the New York Times as “an insightful documentary...explores the roiling social, racial and political currents that affected Anderson's life and career.” Rob recently won a duPont-Columbia Award for Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. He has received three Emmy nominations, a Writer’s Guild Award and two nominations, an IDA Award, a Western Heritage Award, a Western Writers of America Award, and a CINE Special Jury Award.
Lauren Wimbush
Producer
Producer
Lauren Wimbush is a producer and archival researcher dedicated to telling compelling and thought provoking non-fiction stories featuring underrepresented characters, communities, and experiences. Lauren has contributed to a range of feature documentaries and long form television projects for networks such as Hulu, PBS, and HBO. Lauren received her B.A. degree in English from Amherst College, and an M.S. degree in Media Management from The New School, specializing in producing and media business and leadership. Lauren served as the Associate Producer on the Emmy Award winning feature Miles Davis: Birth of The Cool, produced by Firelight Films. Most recently, she served as the Producer of Birthing a Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney, a documentary short for MTV Documentary Films.
Emily Harrold
Co-Producer
Co-Producer
Emily is a documentary filmmaker from Orangeburg, South Carolina. Her films have screened at such festivals as the Tribeca Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, DOC NYC and the Telluride Film Festival. She is part of DOC NYC’s 2021 40 under 40 list. Most recently, she produced and directed the documentary short, Meltdown In Dixie, which won the Academy Award qualifying Best Short Award at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in 2021. Harrold produced Apograph’s Voice of Freedom documentary about singer Marian Anderson for PBS’s American Experience series. Harrold is also part of the team behind Discovery's Tigerland (Sundance 2019) and National Geographic's Ron Howard-directed Rebuilding Paradise (Sundance 2020). Harrold is a member of Film Fatales and the Documentary Producers Alliance. She is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.