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Shelia Nevins
Sheila
Nevins, President of HBO Documentary and
Family for Home Box Office, has a corner
office and she has earned it. During her
tenure, HBO's documentary and family programming
has won 39 Prime Time Emmy®
Awards, 42 News and Documentary Emmys®,
and 25 George Foster Peabody Awards. She
has supervised or assigned projects that
have gone on to win seventeen Documentary
Academy Awards®.
You would expect her office to be filled
with papers, a computer, and an overflowing
desk. Instead, the room occupied by one
of The Hollywood Reporter's
Top 50 Women is casually furnished with
leather chairs and couches, along with
a coffee table covered with vegetables
and beverages. The casualness of
her office complements Sheila's even-keeled
voice and relaxed posture. But don't be
fooled by her seemingly easy-going demeanor;
there is good reason why she has been
nicknamed the "Documentary Dominatrix.” She
attributes her success to being tenacious,
talented, and lucky. “There are a lot
of talented people, but not everyone is
lucky. It comes down to being in
the right place at the right time,” she
says.
For Sheila Nevins, the “right time” came
in 1979 when she was hired as HBO's director
of documentary programming. During
her first four years she supervised more
than 150 programs, including the first
George Foster Peabody Award presented
to a cable program: “She's Nobody's Baby,”
co-produced by Ms. Magazine. But she never
felt comfortable taking credit for her
successful accomplishments. Sheila stressed
her concern recently at a New York Woman
in Film and Television Power Player Breakfast
that too many women in the industry feel
guilty when they take credit for their
work.
Her self-perception would change in the
mid-80s after she received some professional
advice from her former boss, Don Hewitt,
with whom she produced “Who's Who” for
CBS. Sheila was shopping at Gimbel's
Department Store in Manhattan when she
ran into Mr. Hewitt. He asked her what
she did at HBO. Sheila went through
a list of her responsibilities. Don
responded, “Oh, you do what I do. It's
important that you make sure to take credit
for your work.” She took his advice and
asked at her next contract negotiation.
“Somebody has to take credit, and it might
as well be you,” she told the women at
the Power Player Breakfast.
A risk-taker in her professional career,
Sheila has journeyed from working as a
producer/writer for the Children's Television
Workshop to producing such risqué fare
as the HBO series “Real Sex,” “Pornocupia,”
and “Cathouse.” She is best known as the
champion of such acclaimed documentaries
as “Born Into Brothels,” “Chernobyl Heart,”
and “Murder on a Sunday Morning.” Such
risky material defines Sheila Nevins and
defines HBO. “The basis of a HBO
documentary,” she says, “is never knowing
what it is going to be, trying to nudge
the world a little bit, and taking a risk.”
It is her willingness to push the envelope
with HBO material over the past 26 years
that has led to several career-achievement
awards, including a 2005 Emmy®
Lifetime Achievement Award and a 2003
Lucy Award for Women in Film. In 2000
she was inducted into the Broadcasting
& Cable's Hall of Fame and the NATAS'
Silver Circle. In the late 90s she was
presented with a Personal Peabody, an
IDA Career Achievement Award, and a New
York Woman in Film and Television Muse
Award for Outstanding Vision & Achievement.
In 2002 she received the Humanitarian
Award from the National Board of Review.
As an NBR member, Sheila admires the group's
appreciation of eclectic films and diversity
in its award selections. “It's nice to
be a part of a group of mature people
who respect film, and who give parity
to documentaries as well. The NBR is right
up there with respecting the work; the
content comes first, the storytelling
comes first. I think the NBR is always
there with that, and the choices the NBR
makes and the films they select are always
very interesting. It means something.
A lot of awards can be bought, but this
one you can't buy.”
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