Founded by Oscar and Emmy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams and Emmy Award-winning producer Geoff Martz, One Story Up specializes in creating both socially and artistically driven documentary films, television, series, animation and VR.

Roger Ross Williams

Roger Ross Williams is an award-winning director, producer, writer and the first African-American director to win an Academy Award ® with his short film Music By Prudence.

Williams’ award winning work pushes the boundaries of culture and film. His documentaries include: Life, Animated, which won the Sundance Film Festival Directing Award, won three Emmys in 2018, and was nominated for an Academy Award®; God Loves Uganda, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award®; Emmy-nominated and Webby-winning VR experience Traveling While Black; and The Apollo which won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Documentary.

Since 2016, Williams has been on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, serving as chair of the Documentary Branch and the documentary Diversity Committee. Williams serves on the Alumni Advisory Board of the Sundance Institute, the Advisory Board of Full Frame Festival, and the boards of the Tribeca Film Institute, Docubox Kenya, None On Record and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. He resides in New York and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Geoff Martz

Geoff Martz is a 4-time Emmy Award winning producer. He left a long career at ABC in 2018 to join Roger Ross Williams in starting One Story Up. Since then, he has executive produced two limited series for Netflix (The Innocence Files, and High on the Hog), as well as a feature for HBO (Between the World and Me, based on the book by Ta-Nehisi Coates) and a series for Topic that features short films by under-represented filmmakers.

One Story Up is currently in production on two more doc features for Netflix, working on a series for Hulu and ABC, producing a doc feature for A&E, as well as developing a true crime series for HBO.