Laura Ricciardi (1969/1970) is an American filmmaker, producer and editor. Ricciardi is known for the documentary television series ''

Making a Murderer ''Making a Murderer'' is an American true crime documentary television series written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. The show tells the story of Steven Avery, a man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who served 18 years in pris ...

,'' which she co-directed with filmmaker

Moira Demos Moira Demos is an Emmy Award winning American filmmaker, producer and editor. Demos rose to prominence with her documentary ''Making a Murderer'' which she co-directed with filmmaker Laura Ricciardi, in a process that took 10 years to complet ...

, in a process that took 10 years to complete. For her work on ''Making a Murderer'', Ricciardi is the recipient of three

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

Education

Ricciardi graduated from

Manhattan College Manhattan College is a private, Catholic, liberal arts university in the Bronx, New York City. Originally established in 1853 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) as an academy for day students, it was la ...

in 1992 with a

B.A. degree Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate education, undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally complet ...

in English and government. She then earned a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...

in February 1996 and an MFA in film from

Columbia University School of the Arts The Columbia University School of the Arts, (also known as School of the Arts or SoA) is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Visual Arts, ...

. Her thesis film was recommended for a

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

student award. In 2007, she received a filmmaking grant from The Peter S. Reed Foundation.

Career

__NOTOC__ Prior to working in film, Ricciardi worked as a lawyer. In 2002, she worked as a production assistant on two episodes of ''

In the Life ''In the Life'' was a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) television newsmagazine, broadcast on public television and produced by In The Life Media. It was created in 1991 by the Emmy Award-winning producer John Scagliotti. Premiering o ...

'', a

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

newsmagazine produced by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

. Ricciardi and Moira Demos met while graduate students in

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's film program in 2005. The two learned about Steven Avery, a convict in Wisconsin released due to DNA evidence, only to be accused of another crime, after reading an article in the ''New York Times''. Both thought the case could make for an interesting documentary. Before meeting with Netflix, the company that ultimately chose to produce the series, Demos and Ricciardi met with executives at

and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, but neither network was interested in the project. The series premiered in December 2015 to positive reviews. Review aggregator site

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

awarded it a score of 85 out of 100, indicating mostly positive reviews. Ricciardi went on to win three Emmys for her work on ''

'': Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, Outstanding Directing For Nonfiction Programming, and Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming all three of which she shared with

. In 2018 Demos and Ricciardi released a second season of ''

''.

Personal life

Ricciardi is in a long-term relationship with director

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ricciardi, Laura Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Manhattan College alumni New York Law School alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni American documentary film directors American television directors LGBT film directors LGBT television directors American women documentary filmmakers 21st-century American women American women television directors