Bonni Cohen

Bonni Cohen is an American documentary film producer and director. She is the co-founder of Actual Films and has produced and directed an array of award-winning films. Most recently, she co-directed, along with husband Jon Shenk, the 2024 documentary In Waves and War, which was released on Netflix in November, 2025. She also produced the Oscar-nominated film Lead Me Home, which premiered at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival and is a Netflix Original. She also recently co-directed Athlete A, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary and received four nominations from the Critics’ Choice Awards. She is the co-founder of Actual Films, the production company of the documentaries An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Audrie & Daisy, 3.5 Minutes, The Island President, Lost Boys of Sudan and The Rape of Europa. Cohen is the co-founder of the Catapult Film Fund.

Career Cohen co-directed the 2024 documentary In Waves and War. and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival where it was acquired by Netflix.

Cohen is the producer of The Island President, a documentary about the first democratically elected president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed. In 2009, Cohen produced the film Wonders are Many, directed by Jon Else, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. Cohen co-directed Inside Guantanamo with Else. Cohen also served as Executive Producer Inside Bethlehem (2007) The Last Christians of Bethlehem (2007) The Rape of Europa (2006) Audrie & Daisy (2016, producer) P.O.V. (2015, series, executive producer, 1 episode) Art and Craft 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets (2015, executive producer) 2000 International Documentary Association Award Nominee, Strand Program, They Drew Fire (2000), shared with Nicole Newnham and Brian Lanker 2008 Writers Guild of America Award Nominee, Documentary Screenplay, The Rape of Europa (2006), shared with Richard Berge and Nicole Newnham 2020 Critics Choice Documentary Awards Nominee, Athlete A (2020), shared with Jon Shenk