Benjamin Zand (born ) is a British documentary-maker, journalist and director. He was previously a documentary executive at BBC Studios and a former head of the BBC documentary team, BBC Pop Up. He now runs his own production company, ZANDLAND Films.
Early life
Zand was born on 2 February 1991 in Liverpool, England, to an Iranian family; his father is from Tehran. He attended Bowring Comprehensive School in Huyton, Merseyside.
Career
Zand studied journalism in university. During his time there, he started a travel website and began video production. His first documentary was called Tehrangeles, featuring Iranians living in Los Angeles. After finishing his studies, he worked with production companies and eventually became a producer at the BBC World Service working on numerous radio programmes, including BBC World Have Your Say. After about a year, he moved on to BBC World News, as a producer and social media manager of BBC Facebook pages.
Zand then became a video journalist and reporter for BBC News, also becoming part of the BBC's video innovation lab. During this time, he covered stories from far-right ultranationalism to Native Americans in South Dakota. He also launched BBC Trending and BBC Newsbeats video offering, and worked for the BBC's The Travel Show. Towards the end of 2014, he started the BBC's "mobile bureau" called BBC Pop Up with a BBC colleague. Here, he travelled across the U.S. crowdsourcing story ideas and making documentaries for BBC World News and BBC News.
Benjamin then went on to become Editor of BBC Pop Up. Managing a team that flew around the world and made digital-first documentaries for an international audience. The documentaries now have millions of views online.
After working for different departments across the BBC making documentaries, including BBC Two, BBC Three and Panorama, Ben then signed an exclusive contract to make his documentaries through the BBC Studios Documentary Unit. He became a Senior Development Executive on his own films as well as the director and author.
In 2017, Ben set up his own production company, ZANDLAND Films. ZANDLAND Films now makes documentaries with media organisations around the world.
Ben also makes podcasts, including The Next Episode which is a youth-orientated podcast on BBC Sounds.
Additionally while working as a journalist for BBC, Zand met VICE News journalist Isobel Yeung. The two announced their dating relationship via their Instagram accounts in 2018.
Documentaries
A list featuring some of Benjamin Zand's documentaries.
The Cult of Conspiracy: QAnon
Director Ben Zand sets out on an examination of the wildest conspiracy of our times. From the biggest names in Qanon to the front-line digital soldiers, what leads people down such a different path?
The Mysterious Murder of Nipsey Hussle
Director Ben Zand sets out to unravel the mystery of Nipsey Hussle's murder. Who wanted him dead? Was it the police? The government? Or an old gang dispute?
Extinction Rebellion: Last Chance to Save the World
A huge new global protest movement is changing public attitudes to climate change. Ben Zand gains access to the most high-profile activist group, Extinction Rebellion.
Confessions of a Serial Killer
The documentary by filmmaker Ben Zand, created by ZANDLAND Films, travelled from California to Mississippi in order to investigate the story of Samuel Little. Serial killer Samuel Little claims to have murdered more than 90 women across the United States over a four-decade period, and, although the number of victims rose and rose during his rampage, the crimes were seemingly ignored. The documentary aired on Channel 4 in the UK in May 2019. The Times gave it a 4 star rating, stating: "Zand has a fresh, informal presenting style, which allows him to ask hard questions in a low-key way that gets answers."
Is This Sexual Harassment? Social experiment by journalist and presenter Ben Zand in which a group of people come together to try to understand what constitutes sexual harassment.
World's Most Dangerous Cities with Ben Zand
Zand visited "the most dangerous cities on earth, coming face to face with killers and terror". In this series he visited Caracas in Venezuela, Kabul in Afghanistan and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.
R Kelly: Sex, Girls & Videotapes
Zand explored allegations surrounding the sex life of R&B legend R Kelly, including accusations of holding women against their will in his home in Atlanta and running a degrading sex cult — allegations he denies.