Ted Roach

Ted Roach is a director, producer, and editor who has worked in the film and digital media industries for over twenty years. He operates Sammy Slate Productions, and his projects have screened in over 60 film festivals, won many awards, and have been broadcast internationally. Most recently Ted directed & edited Manchester Orchestra's new 30-minute documentary "I Know How to Speak," and edited 2 of their official music videos, "The Moth" and "The Gold." He also directed and edited a series of videos for Cedric Burnside which will be released in Fall 2018, co-edited Kesha's "Rainbow: the Film," (a 30-minute doc for iTunes coming 8.9.18), and served as a staff editor on "A Chef's Life" season 5 on PBS. Roach & Sammy Slate Productions are probably best known for writing, directing, editing, and producing "120 Days: Undocumented in America." This independent documentary won 12 awards in over 30 film festivals and was picked up for worldwide VOD distribution in 2015. In 2016 the program was picked up by "Reel South," a public television documentary series which will broadcast the film nationally until 2020. He has also raised over $25,000 for the Cortes family through GoFundMe.com. Prior to 2018, Ted worked as an editor on Cynthia Hill's "The Road to Race Day," edited music videos for Kesha, Trace Adkins, Drake White, and Gavin Degraw. He served as a producer and co-editor on the MTV doc-series "Kesha: My Crazy Beautiful Life" in 2012-2013, and has produced/edited several other award-winning, broadcast documentaries ("Somay Ku: A Uganda Tennis Story," "Ecoviews; Three Stories from the Chesapeake Bay" for Maryland Public TV, and "Saving the American Wild Horse"). As a freelance video journalist and editor in Washington, DC between 2008-2012, he created many digital video shorts for organizations such as the National Park Service, NOAA, the Investigative Reporting Workshop, and the American News Project. Before his documentary and journalism work, Roach spent six years in Los Angeles working as an assistant director, production coordinator, location scout, production assistant, and also as a motion picture talent agent's assistant at the William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills. He formed his own production company during this time, Sammy Slate Productions, to produce and direct his first film, "The Gentleman Don La Mancha." Ted holds an MFA Film & Electronic Media degree from American University in Washington DC, where he won the 2011 University Award for Outstanding Graduate Scholarship, and was a national finalist for the 2010 Student Academy Award in Documentary. He earned a directing/editing certification from the Los Angeles Film School in 2002, and a BA History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996.