Kate M.

About

Based in Portland, Oregon, Kate McMahon is an award-winning producer, director, writer and journalist of news and documentaries. Kate’s work includes FRONTLINE; The NewsHour, NOW With Bill Moyers, one-off PBS programs and regional PBS station programs. Kate’s most recent documentary FRONTLINE: Coronavirus Pandemic premiered April 21, 2020. Her forthcoming 4-part PBS documentary series, hosted by NBC News technology correspondent Jake Ward, is about breakthroughs in behavioral science called, Hacking Your Mind (releases fall, 2020). Kate has received several awards and nominations for her work including a National Emmy and the NIHCM Health Care TV and Radio Journalism Award, and has contributed to more than 40 hours of national documentary and news programming, primarily for PBS, since she began her career in 1998 as an Associate Producer for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Her other past work includes, The Doctor Fix: A New Era of Modern Medicine (PBS stations 2017); FRONTLINE: The Vaccine War (updated, 2015); Oregon Field Guide; Oregon Art Beat (2015); and, The Programmers – a trilogy of short documentaries about game-changing women in computing (2015.) Documentaries include FRONTLINE: Life and Death in Assisted Living (2013); FRONTLINE: Nuclear Aftershocks (2012); FRONTLINE: The Vaccine War (original broadcast in 2010); FRONTLINE: Sick Around America (2009) and FRONTLINE: Sick Around the World (2008). In 2008, Kate’s co-produced a two-hour historical documentary, Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil and the Presidency for PBS. In 2004 Kate associate produced the Oscar-nominated film ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room and in 2005 she co-produced FRONTLINE: The Meth Epidemic. In 2001, while working at ABC-NEWS Nightline producing the PBS series Life 360, Kate covered the tragic events of 9/11 for Peter Jennings in New York City. She went on to work for NOW with Bill Moyers covering the nexus of business and politics in Washington, D.C. Her on-going production of Inside the Psychologist’s Studio is a popular web series for the Association for Psychological Science. Outside of producing documentaries and news, Kate has produced and reported public radio programs, and written articles in Metro Parent Magazine. Kate is a visiting lecturer at Portland State University, Portland Community College, Clackamas Community College and Linfield College. Her second language is Spanish. She is a board member of the Women in Film-PDX chapter, participates as a panelist at journalism and documentary conferences and enjoys mentoring aspiring journalism professionals.

Top Services

Documentary DP

Reporter / Journalist

Line Producer / On-Location