Eddie Schmidt

Eddie Schmidt is an Academy Award- and Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker, as well as a showrunner and director of groundbreaking series and specials.

His TV and streaming work includes Netflix’s Ugly Delicious and Chelsea Does, starring Chelsea Handler, the reboot of In Search Of, featuring Zachary Quinto, and CBS’ true crime investigation, The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey.

Schmidt produced the feature documentaries Valentine Road and Twist of Faith for HBO, Troubadours for PBS’ American Masters, and This Film Is Not Yet Rated for IFC, all of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Road was subsequently nominated for multiple News & Documentary Emmys, while Troubadours  shared in that season’s Emmy win for American Masters, and Twist was nominated for an Academy Award. Schmidt’s documentary career began by producing the groundbreaking Chain Camera, which also had its world premiere at Sundance. To date, Eddie has had six Sundance Film Festival premieres.

Other documentaries include Executive Producer of Gilbert: A Gilbert Gottfried Story, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival before streaming on Hulu, and Beauty is Embarrassing, which premiered at South by Southwest (SXSW) before premiering on Independent Lens, where it was nominated for an Emmy.

Other TV work includes stints as Co-Executive Producer of MTV’s Catfish, and Director of NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are. Schmidt also directed the celebrated short film Good Bread and appeared on radio’s venerable This American Life. 

For three years, Eddie was elected Board President of the International Documentary Association (IDA). He has also participated in labs, panels and juries for Film Independent and many other film festivals and industry events. Once upon a time, he also co-authored the book The Finger: A Comprehensive Guide To Flipping Off.

Over a multi-year deal with Universal Television, Eddie and his company created, developed, sold and produced projects for Peacock, NBC, Discovery+, History, YouTube, BBC Studios, American Public Television and, yes, Quibi. These projects paired him with talent-driven prodcos such as Appian Way, Sethmaker Shoemeyers, Fuzzy Door, Powderkeg, Seven Bucks, Westbrook, Sofia Vergara’s Latin World Entertainment and Questlove’s TwoOneFive. Eddie is currently in postproduction on a pilot, and consulting producer on Maggie Contreras’ Maestra, which premiered in competition at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. 

Eddie is repped by Tyler Kroos at CAA, and Stephen Marks at Dialed In Entertainment.

More information about Eddie can be found at Wikipedia, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.