Biography

Director and filmmaker, Joshua Seftel received his first Emmy nomination at age 22 with his documentary 'Lost and Found' about Romania's orphaned children. The film led to the American adoption of thousands of Romanian orphans. He followed this with several documentaries including the political campaign film 'Taking on the Kennedys' selected by Time Magazine as one of the "ten best of the year"; the underdog sports film 'The Home Team' which premiered at SXSW, and the behind-the-scenes film about Annie's Broadway revival 'It's the Hard Knock Life' which the New York Times called "delightful." His 2016 award-winning documentary, 'The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano' produced with Geralyn Dreyfous and Steve Tisch, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, won the IDA Documentary Award, and became the most viewed New York Times Op-Doc of the year.

Seftel continues to helm the ongoing documentary series he created, 'Secret Life of Muslims' a Peabody Award Finalist and Emmy nominee. The timely personal short films which combat Islamophobia have more than 70 million views to date. His newest documentary, 'Stranger at the Gate' was born from the series and released by The New Yorker. The film has been called "A remarkable story of redemption...an Oscar contender" by Deadline Hollywood.

Seftel is known for directing the Emmy-winning breakthrough series 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,' the feature film 'War, Inc.' starring John Cusack, Marisa Tomei and Ben Kingsley, and the comedy series, 'My Mom in Quarantine' he makes with his 85-year-old mother, Pat, which became a regular segment throughout the pandemic on CBS Sunday Morning. The New York Times wrote, "the word 'droll' seems as if it were invented for these two."