Justine Shapiro was born in South Africa and grew up in Berkeley. She is an Oscar nominated documentary filmmaker and host of the TV travel series GlobeTrekker. She studied and worked as an actress for 20 years at A.C.T. in San Francisco, Circle in the Square in NYC, and for two years in Paris with legendary theater teachers Philippe Gualier and Monika Pagneaux. In Los Angeles she acted in film and TV including I’ll Do Anything, dir.James L. Brooks and Storyville dir. Mark Frost. During her four years in Los Angeles she also taught ESL to students from around the world and their stories inspired Justine to return to the Bay Area to study documentary filmmaking. Just as she began her studies, Pilot Films, a London based production company asked her to host a new travel series called GlobeTrekker. For 10 years Justine hosted 35 episodes, in over 40 countries, with each shoot lasting 3 weeks. In between shoots Justine directed and produced two long-form documentaries: Our Summer in Tehran and Promises. Promises, which garnered two Emmy Awards, and was nominated for an Academy Award, features seven Palestinian and Israeli children living in and around Jerusalem. Our Summer in Tehran, which premiered at IDFA Amsterdam and was broadcast on PBS in 2011, chronicles Justine and her (then) six year-old son’s summer with three Iranian families. Currently Justine is developing a documentary film in which San Francisco taxi drivers, most of whom are immigrants, tell their stories.