Photos by Wesley Verhoeve
Hailing from the Netherlands, Steffie van Rhee is a multimedia journalist turned documentary filmmaker and Emmy Award-winning producer. Located in New York, she tries to combine her background in journalism with her love for documentary storytelling, finding the roots for stories in extensive research. She believes that sharing people’s personal stories can catalyze (social) change and create a deeper understanding of different experiences. Dedicated to amplifying female narratives and bringing projects into the world that highlight other underrepresented perspectives, she is often found working on projects focusing on women’s issues, or that are driven by diverse creative teams.
Her recent credits include producer of EARTH TO MICHAEL (Telluride 2025), which she produced alongside Dustin Nakao-Haider and is directed by Nico Lopez-Alegría & ZZ, co-producer of LOVE MACHINA (Sundance, SXSW 2024) and co-producer of Netflix original six-part documentary series RACE: BUBBA WALLACE (2022, NAACP Image Award Nominee + Outstanding Documentary Series - Serialized Sports Emmy winner), about NASCAR’s only Black driver. Steffie is also the producer of AMC+ documentary ALL OF THEM WITCHES (2022), directed by Mona Panchal, the co-producer of BATTLEGROUND (Tribeca 2022), about the fight for the future of abortion in America, by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Cynthia Lowen and the associate producer of Lowen’s previous feature documentary NETIZENS (Tribeca Film Festival, Hot Docs 2018, HBO Max), about three women fighting back against online harassment.
Steffie is a 2023 Film Independent Fast Track participant, a 2021 Film Independent Doc Lab fellow and a 2020-2021 Impact Partners Documentary Producers fellow. She holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht and a graduate degree in Documentary Media Studies from The New School. There she first took her own seat in the director’s chair and debuted with the short documentary A LIFE BEFORE THIS (2016), about a mother who lost her son to police brutality. It went on to screen at multiple film festivals and was awarded with the Special Jury Mention for Student Documentary at the March on Washington Film Festival.
As freelance researcher and producer she has worked with production companies such as Boardwalk Pictures, XTR, C41 Media, Film45, Pantheon Media Group, Bureau NY and Atlantic Pictures. As a director she has contributed to PBS’ American Portrait Project. Additionally, Steffie is an active member of the Documentary Producers Alliance, where she serves on the Ethics Resource Library Subcommittee, and a proud member of both the Television Academy and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.
*More work samples or complete resume available upon request