Laura Checkoway

Laura Checkoway is a documentary filmmaker and writer, known for her documentary Edith+Eddie for which she received an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject nomination at the 90th Academy Awards. The film also received an Emmy nomination and won numerous awards including the IDA Documentary Awards Best Short. In The New Yorker, critic Richard Brody wrote: “One of the most impressive aspects of Checkoway’s film is that, with a simple and straightforward approach, she brings the overwhelming force of abstract institutions seemingly onto the screen.” Academy Award winning filmmaker Julia Reichert called Edith+Eddie "One of the most beautiful and quietly furious films I've ever seen." Checkoway's documentary The Cave of Adullam is executive produced by Laurence Fishburne and premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2022, winning top prizes Best Documentary Feature, Best Editing, and the Audience Award. In an interview with Deadline, Fishburne said: “She has a cinematic sensitivity and a doctor’s bedside manner... Laura doesn’t impose her personality or her energy onto anything. It boils down to her humanity and her ability to see the humanity in all…” The film was released by ESPN Films. She received NYWIFT’s Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking Award in 2022.

With a background in journalism, Checkoway was a writer for numerous publications including Vibe and Rolling Stone.

Checkoway wrote the 05 February 2008 Village Voice cover story entitled "Prodigy's 25th Hour." In 2011, Simon & Schuster published My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep’s Prodigy, a memoir co-authored by Checkoway and Prodigy. This work has been described in the Ringer as being "one of the best music autobiographies ever."

Filmography 2025: The Cat Man Eshete (Documentary short) 2022: The Cave of Adullam (Documentary feature) Executive producer Laurence Fishburne. 2017: Edith+Eddie (Documentary short) Executive producers Steve James and Cher. 2016: Wolffland (Documentary short about artist Mia Wolff) 2014: Lucky (Documentary feature) Executive producer Steve James.