FRONTLINE Expands Newsroom, Hiring Marjon Javadi, Nicki DeMarco and Joel Patterson

The new hires underscore the series’ commitment to cross-platform, global storytelling 

FRONTLINE, the award-winning PBS investigative documentary series produced at GBH in Boston, announced the expansion of its team with a slate of accomplished hires: Marjon Javadi, Nicki DeMarco and Joel Patterson.

Across documentary, digital video and audio, Javadi, DeMarco and Patterson’s work will enhance the series’ mission to share impactful, investigative journalism with audiences everywhere — from theaters and festivals to social and streaming platforms:

• Marjon Javadi joins as the managing director of GBH’s longform non-fiction Documentary Unit, working across FRONTLINE, NOVA and American Experience. Javadi will have a special emphasis on strategy and business partnerships for FRONTLINE FEATURES, the investigative documentary series’ new effort aimed at producing cinematic, feature-length and short documentaries for global, multi-platform distribution. Previously, Javadi served as vice president of documentary film and series at Disney, where she programmed Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary features and series globally for Disney+. Recent titles she worked on included Samantha Knowles and Geeta Gandbhir’s Harlem Ice, Ron Howard’s 5x Emmy-winning Jim Henson Idea Man, and Sean Wang’s 2024 Academy Award®–nominated short Nai Nai & Wài Pó. With a background in commissioning and acquisitions, Javadi began her career in scripted film and has held roles in fiction and non-fiction at Focus Features, CAA, Scott Rudin Productions and Netflix. Prior to Disney, she was the film and partnerships executive at Doc Society.
• Nicki DeMarco joined FRONTLINE as the series’ senior producer of digital and audience. In this role, DeMarco will focus on expanding the series’ social video reporting, overseeing and producing rigorously researched visual journalism that engages digital audiences across social and streaming platforms. This includes managing the team behind FRONTLINE’s vertical video series, For The Record. Before joining FRONTLINE, DeMarco co-led the launch of The Washington Post’s inaugural Creator Hub, an initiative that empowered select journalists to host original, social-first video series — blending the newsroom’s editorial standards with emerging storytelling formats and platforms. Earlier in her career, DeMarco served as The Post’s senior producer for the breaking news video team, overseeing daily coverage of major political and global events, including the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.
• Joel Patterson is FRONTLINE’s audio strategy director, focusing on the series’ original podcast, The FRONTLINE Dispatch, and exploring new ways to translate FRONTLINE’s journalism into audio. An editor, writer and audio producer with more than two decades of experience in journalism and podcasting, Patterson held senior roles at NPR affiliates WHYY and KPCC, APM’s Marketplace, and The Gist. He’s created podcasts and narrative series for clients including the Smithsonian and The Wharton School. Patterson is a former editor-in-chief of Surfer Magazine.

The scaling of FRONTLINE’s team reflects a decade-long evolution led by Oscar®-winning producer Raney Aronson‑Rath, the series’ editor-in-chief and executive producer. Under her leadership, FRONTLINE has transformed from a traditional broadcast program into a dynamic, multiplatform media organization, embracing new storytelling formats and letting them inform how FRONTLINE engages new and global audiences.

“Marjon, Nicki and Joel each bring a unique perspective on how compelling journalism is  created and experienced today,” says Aronson-Rath. “Their exceptional cross-platform work will deepen the impact of FRONTLINE’s storytelling and reach people in new ways, and we’re so pleased to welcome them to our team.”

Aronson-Rath, who also leads GBH’s Documentary Unit, adds: “Marjon’s leadership will be instrumental in shaping FRONTLINE, NOVA and American Experience’s business strategy, editorial partnerships and international growth. I’m excited to partner with her to create a robust, forward-looking vision for the Documentary Unit, and to tap into her background as we further build and expand our global brands in storytelling.”

Today, FRONTLINE reaches millions of viewers around the world through YouTube, its website and across social platforms. The series launched its podcast, The FRONTLINE Dispatch, in 2017, and expanded into theatrical documentaries in 2018.

The series launched FRONTLINE FEATURES in 2025, building on its expansion into the critically acclaimed, feature-length documentary space. Since Aronson-Rath was named executive producer, FRONTLINE has earned three Academy Award® nominations  — for Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, For Sama and 20 Days in Mariupol — with the latter winning the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature in 2024. The award-winning films 2000 Meters to Andriivka, Antidote are among the first FRONTLINE FEATURES productions — alongside One in a Million, which won the World Cinema Documentary Audience and Directing Awards after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 2026.

About FRONTLINE FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won an Academy Award® as well as every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 110 Emmy Awards and 34 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with major support from Ford Foundation, and The Fialkow Family Foundation, as part of the Plum Bush Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and Corey David Sauer, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.

Press Contact: FRONTLINE, Anne Husted Director of Marketing & Communications, frontlinemedia@wgbh.org