Martha Jeffries

Martha Jeffries (born 1978) is a New Zealand filmmaker, specialising in climate communications, science-related media and advocacy.

Jeffries is known for her work directing and producing episodes for the Emmy Award-winning documentary series Years of Living Dangerously for National Geographic, the NHNZ series Dynamic Planet screened on PBS and Arte, and OceanXplorers from filmmaker James Cameron, also for National Geographic and Disney Plus.

Early and personal life Martha Jeffries was born in Wellington New Zealand to parents Bill Jeffries, a former New Zealand Labour Party politician, and Shona Jeffries, a teacher. She trained as a flute player, completing a degree in classical music, and had embarked on a career in music until her mid-twenties when she began film and TV production work. After a period of living and working in Sweden, Denmark and Austria,

Filmmaking career In her early 20's, Jeffries taught herself film direction from books and began directing music videos, She directed her first television series at age 26, a New Zealand travel show called Are We There Yet and beginning in 2008 Jeffries directed five seasons of the international food and travel series World Kitchen. and was offered a directing role on their Emmy Award-winning documentary series Years of Living Dangerously, and OceanXplorers, hosted by James Cameron.

Activism Jeffries has said that the decade she spent filming travel shows in sometimes-volatile locations

She also advocates for more women to be working as directors in the film and television sector, saying "the rates of women working as directors at every level are dismal" despite relatively equal proportions of men and women graduating from film school. Jeffries also mentors young women looking to enter the film industry.

Other work Martha has spoken widely on climate storytelling, including at a UN conference at the Vatican. She was a founding board member and executive advisor of Good Energy, a Los Angeles-based non-profit focused on getting more and better climate stories into Hollywood, and she has been on the jury of the Oceanic Global short film festival.

Filmography TV Series Director 2009-12 World Kitchen|Executive Producer, Director 2016 Years of Living Dangerously|Producer, Director 2018 Invisible Killers|Producer 2023 Dynamic Planet|Executive Producer 2024 OceanXplorers''Development Producer

Music videos