ENDURE

FOUNDER & CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER

Joanna Rudnick

Joanna Rudnick is an Emmy®-nominated director and producer whose work centers on the emotional, ethical, and human dimensions of science, health, and society. Her films explore themes of family, identity, illness, and resilience.

Her debut feature, In the Family (POV | PBS), was nominated for a national Emmy® Award and became a widely used resource in medical and ethics education, helping shape national conversations around genetic testing. Her recent directing work includes The Opioid Trilogy (Independent Lens | PBS), a Webby-nominated animated series on addiction, harm reduction, and recovery, the acclaimed feature documentary Story & Pictures By, and the award-winning short On Beauty (Winner, Best Short Documentary, Chicago International Film Festival). Earlier credits include producing Robert Capa in Love and War (American Masters | PBS + BBC) and Crossfire Hurricane (HBO), and directing an episode of the duPont Award–winning series Hard Earned.

Outside Storied Studios, Joanna directs and produces for select projects, most recently producing The Coral Rescuers for Actual Films. She speaks regularly on hereditary cancer, personal storytelling, and science communication, and serves on the board of the Alliance for Fertility Preservation.

Joanna holds degrees from Northwestern University and NYU's Science, Health & Environmental Reporting program.

PRODUCER

Erika Brekke

Erika Brekke is a documentary filmmaker and producer whose work explores healthcare, social, and environmental issues. For more than a decade, she has produced documentaries in the United States and internationally across multiple continents, capturing stories at the intersection of science, hope, and heartbreak—grounded in the resilience of the human spirit.

Erika’s work has been featured on PBS’s Independent Lens, Al Jazeera America, Slate, Outside Magazine, and other outlets. She previously worked at the Associated Press Television News bureau in Brussels through a Global Journalism Residency Program, where she covered EU Parliament and NATO politics, as well as a war crimes trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. She holds a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.