Kiki Kapany is the CEO and Executive Producer at Kikim Media, where all of the productions are guided by our fundamental commitment to fairness and accuracy and by the conviction that a true story, honestly told, can change lives.

She is currently producing Our Beautiful Planet, a series of ten videos about climate change that will air on PBS in 2021. Her most recent productions include Secrets in our DNA (2021), a documentary produced for PBS’ science series NOVA that explores the power of direct-to-consumer DNA testing and the unintended consequences; Look Who’s Driving (2019), a documentary on the future of autonomous vehicles for PBS’s NOVA; and The Ornament of the World (2019), a two-hour animated and live action documentary for PBS about the relationships among Muslims, Jews and Christians in medieval Spain.

Kapany’s additional productions include Silicon Valley: The Untold Story (2018), a three-hour series about the cultural, technological and intellectual history of Silicon Valley for Discovery’s Science Channel, as well as two films based on Michael Pollan’s best-selling books, the Emmy-nominated film In Defense of Food (2015), critically acclaimed at over 20 film festivals around the world, and The Botany of Desire (2009). Kapany has also produced Capturing Grace (2014), a one-hour observational film that documents the intersection between those who live with a movement disorder (Parkinson’s Disease) and those who move for a living; My Father, My Brother and Me (2009), a chronicle of Parkinson’s disease, for FRONTLINE, and Hunting the Hidden Dimension (2008), the story of fractal geometry, for NOVA. She also executive produced Ending AIDS: The Search for a Vaccine (2005), widely praised as a compelling chronicle of one of the world’s greatest biomedical research challenges, as well as the groundbreaking Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002), honored with a Special Jury Award from Ciné Golden Eagle and a Bronze World Medal from the International Film and Video Festival of New York. Kapany’s other programs for public television include The Next Big Thing?, Stopwatch, Naked to the Bone, and In Search of Law and Order (a three-hour production on alternatives to the juvenile justice system). Kikim Media also produced and directed three short videos for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, a series of 27 short videos about fascinating social entrepreneurs for the Skoll Foundation, a series about diabetes for the University of California, San Francisco Diabetes Center and the Diabetic Youth Foundation, and the special features for HBO’s DVD release of Deadwood.

Each of Kikim’s films come with extensive outreach components to give the film further reach and legs in to communities, with the hope of making some real and palpable change.

Kiki Kapany is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and a licensed attorney in the State of California. She has practiced law for over 34 years and acted as temporary judge in Marin County, California. Her experienced legal sense, paired with a sound creative approach to production on a worldwide scale, adds a key dimension to Kikim’s resources. She manages all of the entertainment law and day-to-day business required in Kikim’s operations, including overseeing business development, strategic planning, finance and administration. Her expertise extends to the creation and management of major productions, budgets, extensive image research, grant reporting, organizing project deliverables and managing all production and post-production logistics for a wide variety of projects.

After graduating from Yale, Michael began his documentary career in London at Granada Television’s World in Action. While there, he received his first Peabody Award for The Red Army, a compelling portrait of the Soviet military. In 1984, he co-produced the Emmy Award-winning Abortion Clinic for PBS’ Frontline. A Fulbright fellowship in Malaysia followed the next year, during which Michael taught documentary techniques to aspiring Asian filmmakers. In 1988, Michael moved to San Francisco and joined KQED as director of news and current affairs, where he oversaw numerous award-winning programs. Shortly after moving to the city, a serendipitous encounter brought Kiki Kapany into Michael’s life, and within a year, he proposed and they were married, laying the foundation for Kikim Media’s inception.

Committed to the idea that “a true story, honestly told, can change lives”, in 1996 Michael and Kiki founded their media company, Kikim Media. Among the many projects Michael and Kiki ushered into existence were films featuring the work of writer Michael Pollan (The Botany of Desire and In Defense of Food), two NOVA documentaries including the recent film on driverless cars, Look Who’s Driving, a PBS Frontline documentary on Parkinson’s disease, a series of 27 short documentaries profiling social entrepreneurs for the Skoll Foundation, and a recent series on the history of Silicon Valley for the Discovery Channel. Michael and Kiki’s creative partnership was distinguished by passion, integrity, and a deep commitment to principled journalism. Those values are epitomized by their most recent project, The Ornament of the World, which aired nationally on PBS on December 17th, just two weeks after Michael’s passing.

Though tenacious and unsparing in any inquiry, Michael was known for a personal ease, a wry sense of humor, and a gentleness that, in combination, were irresistible. He was fiercely intelligent, intensely loyal, and relentless in his quest to make life better for everyone he knew. Michael passed away suddenly on December 1, 2019 and will continue to be loved and missed by his wife and partner of 30 years Kiki, his daughters Ariana and Misha, his sister Debbie Funderburk, numerous loving extended family members (including brother-in-law Raj Kapany, and nieces and nephews Rusty Funderburk, Corey Funderburk, Danny Funderburk, Tara Kapany and Nikki Kapany) and a legion of admiring friends and colleagues around the globe.

Robert Edwards is a graduate of Stanford’s Masters Program in Documentary and a winner of the Nicholl Fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He began his career at Kikim Media in 1996, straight out of grad school as one of its first hires, editing the “Catching Them Early” episode of the three-part documentary series In Search of Law and Order (1998) and Stopwatch (1999), both for PBS, and working on The Next Big Thing (2001) and Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002). He went on to direct The Voice of the Prophet (Sundance, 2002), and to produce the features docs Sumo East and West (2003) and The Last Laugh (2016), both of which premiered at Tribeca and aired on Independent Lens. He also edited Barry Levinson’s Showtime documentary Yesterday’s Tomorrows (1999), part of a traveling exhibition of the Smithsonian, and Abandoned (2000), for PBS, which won a duPont-Columbia Award. As a screenwriter, he has written for all the major studios, and directed the features Land of the Blind (2006) starring Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland, and When I Live My Life Over Again (aka One More Time) (2016) starring Christopher Walken and Amber Heard. Most recently he co-directed the forthcoming Death and Taxes, about economic inequality, and was story producer on XCLD, for MSNBC, executive produced by Trevor Noah. His book Resisting the Right: How to Survive the Gathering Storm was published by OR Books in July 2024.

Alyn Divine joined Kikim Media in 2013. Recently he has co-produced a number of Kikim Media productions for PBS/NOVA including Weathering the Future (2023), Secrets in our DNA (2021), and Look Who’s Driving (2019).

Alyn has worked as the post-production supervisor for all major Kikim Media productions since In Defense of Food (2015) – playing a key role in delivering high-quality projects on schedule by collaborating with production staff, editors, animators and many others.

In his spare time he can be found in the kitchen creating and enjoying delicious food.

Wes Richardson joined Kikim Media in 2016 shortly after the national broadcast of In Defense of Food. Working as Outreach Director for the project, he coordinated dozens of community and film festival screenings of the film and helped broaden the film’s reach throughout the United States and beyond.

In recent years, Wes has served as an Associate Producer on a variety of projects and also directed/produced an episode of Our Beautiful Planet about the historic Klamath River restoration project. When he’s not working, Wes enjoys hiking and playing basketball.