Smartypants Pictures
Joshua Seftel is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning film director whose underdog stories portray resilience and prompt change. His most recent film, Stranger at the Gate, a 2023 Academy Award-Nominee, executive produced by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, is a part of Seftel’s Emmy and Peabody-nominated Secret Life of Muslims project (SXSW), a series that has been viewed more than 70 million times. For the past several years, Seftel has focused on work that combats hatred, Islamophobia, and shatters stereotypes, an effort which stems from the antisemitism he faced as a child.
Seftel is also known for directing the Emmy-winning landmark series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the anti-war movie War, Inc. starring John Cusack, Marisa Tomei, and Ben Kingsley, and his regular appearances on CBS Sunday Morning, where he interviews his 87-year-old mother about current events and social issues. He is also a contributor to the Peabody Award-winning podcast This American Life and to The New York Times.
Seftel received his first Emmy nomination at age 22 with his documentary Lost and Found (PBS), about Romania’s orphaned children. The film led to the American adoption of thousands of Romanian orphans. Some of his other work includes Taking on the Kennedys (POV), The Home Team (SXSW), Zain’s Summer (National Geographic), and The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano (Tribeca Film Festival, New York Times Op-Docs), which became the most viewed Op-Doc of the year.
Seftel lives in Brooklyn with his wife, filmmaker Erika Frankel, and their two young daughters.
