Sharon Liese

Sharon Liese is a critically acclaimed and award-winning filmmaker who produces documentary-style television programming and documentary films that air on major television networks. Her philosophy is a simple one: to capture real and untold stories that inspire and entertain viewers. Her percipient approach to storytelling brings audiences on a whirlwind ride of emotions and reveals to viewers the human elements of every story. Most recently, Liese directed and produced The Gnomist - a stunningly beautiful 19-minute documentary short about the power of kindness. The film will be screened at film festivals in 2015. During the 2014 Sundance Film Festival this past January, Sharon Liese premiered her film Selfie in collaboration with Director Cynthia Wade and in partnership with Dove and the Sundance Institute. In May of 2014, the short film won a 2014 CLIO Image Award for excellence in a Mass Video or Film Campaign. The film's moving and intimate examination of beauty, through the relationships of mothers and daughters in a small Massachusetts town, has already had a huge viral impact through social media; gaining more than 6 million views and still rising. Because of her work on Selfie, Liese was asked by "The Today Show" and The Sundance Institute to serve as a Sundance Institute Mentor to young teens making a PSA for the "Love Your Selfie" segment that premiered in April 2014. Liese created and executive produced the unprecedented and award-winning WEtv documentary series, "High School Confidential" that followed a group of teenage girls through out their entire four-year high school experience. Liese chose a small group of Blue Valley Northwest High School students in suburban Kansas for the first four years and repeated the process again with teenage girls from Von Steuben High School in urban Chicago. The premiere of High School Confidential broke nearly every ratings record for WEtv. Liese has also worked closely with MTV News and Docs - creating and directing three separate pilots. Most recently, Liese directed the pilot for "True Life: I'm Breaking Up With My Religion" which aired on MTV December 16th, 2014. Liese's other projects include "Sobriety High," an intimately gritty look at at-risk teenagers at a high school for recovering addicts in Minneapolis, and "Ice Queens" -an unusual glimpse into a competitive girls' High School Ice Hockey team in Vermont. In just the past 10 years, Liese has produced content for Fox, Discovery ID, Lifetime, The Oprah Winfrey Network, MTV, and PBS to name a few. Her credits includes "Utopia," "Hookers: Saved on the Strip," "The Week the Women Went," and "Blackboard Wars." Liese directed the three-part Women's Reproductive Health special, Birthing Pains for KCPT-PBS that aired in January 2014. Liese was also the Co-EP/show runner for the pilot of "Breaking Point"- Discovery's newest documentary series about dangerous family secrets; airing January 2015.