Justine Shapiro (born March 20, 1963) is a South African-born American actress, filmmaker, writer, hostess and producer, who was one of several main hosts of the Pilot Productions travel/adventure series Globe Trekker (also called Pilot Guides in Canada and originally broadcast as Lonely Planet).
Justine Shapiro | |
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Born | (1963-03-20) March 20, 1963 (age 59) South Africa |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Actress, TV travel host, documentary filmmaker, director, producer, writer |
Years active | 1992–present |
Website | Justine Shapiro profile |
Before hosting Globe Trekker (Pilot Guides), Shapiro appeared in various roles in film and television. Eventually, she was involved in several documentaries including co-production/direction duties on 2001's Promises, which won two 2002 Emmy Awards, for Best Documentary and Outstanding Background Analysis, and was nominated for best Documentary Feature at the 74th Academy Awards.[1][2][3] Promises attempts to humanize the Arab–Israeli conflict by examining it in microcosm, through the eyes of seven Palestinian and Israeli children living in or near the divided city of Jerusalem.[4]
She produced and directed a feature-length documentary entitled Our Summer in Tehran.[5]
In 2013 she became host of Time Team America, shown on PBS.[6][7]
Shapiro was born in South Africa and grew up in Berkeley, California.[8] She is Jewish.[9]
Shapiro is a survivor of the World Airways Flight 30H airplane crash at Boston's Logan Airport on January 23, 1982.[10]
During an October 2006 broadcast of the Globe Trekker Venice City Guide episode, Shapiro revealed that she went to Tufts University (majoring in history and theater)[8] with Oliver Platt, who recognized her in the crowd while she was covering the Venice Film Festival, where Platt was promoting Casanova.
In her lead-up to a Globe Trekker visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp she stated "Like many Jewish Americans, I have Polish roots. And the Auschwitz concentration camp was where many of my relatives died during World War II."[11]
In Globe Trekker's "South Africa 2", Shapiro and co-host Sami Sabiti traveled to South Africa. While in Soweto, Shapiro visited the nanny she had as a child.[12]
Justine has one child, Mateo Bolado, with Mexican filmmaker Carlos Bolado.
The movie is a collaboration among three filmmakers: Justine Shapiro, an American of South African descent; B.Z. Goldberg, an American who has lived in Israel for many years, and Carlos Bolado, a Mexican film editor. Together, they shot this effort on video, primarily between 1997 and 2000, during a period of relative calm in the region following the Oslo Accords.
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