Film and Media studies is pleased to announce the addition of Wonjung Bae to the faculty.

Ms. Bae is a non-fiction storyteller/documentary filmmaker/news producer. Bae made her first film, Grand, Father and Me, at age sixteen and has won numerous awards for her work, including the 38th Student Academy Award, the 16th Annual Directors Guild of America Student Film Award, and the Kodak Cinematographers Scholarship, among others.

Before joining Johns Hopkins, Bae was the Seoul Producer for BBC covering stories including the South-North Korean division on land and mind, Korean women’s emerging voice against sexual violence, and the unprecedented challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic for the last seven years. Her team’s investigation on the Gangnam sex scandal was a winner at the Asian Academy Creative Awards for Best Single News Story/Report of Korea, 2019.

Before joining BBC, Bae led a production company specialized in international co-productions for character-driven social justice films. One of its features Dollar Heroes was shown at the European Parliament and the UN, and broadcasted through more than 70 public stations including BBC Panorama and Storyville as well as numerous international film festivals. The film was nominated for a 2019 Grierson Documentary Award for Best Documentary Series and won the 59th Monte-Carlo TV Festival Golden Nymph Awards for Best Documentary.

She completed her MFA in Film and Video at Columbia College Chicago and her internship at PBS Frontline, WGBH Boston. Bae cut her teeth in Chicago as a documentary editor for Emmy Award-winning producer Tod Lending and Kartemquin Films. Born in Busan, South Korea, Bae studied political science at Korea University for her undergraduate degree and is an aspiring flutist.