Finding and producing extraordinary stories from around the world, telling them without fear or favor.

Founded in 2021 by NYT bestselling authors Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, Project Brazen has a dozen projects under development. Billion Dollar Whale, Fat Leonard and Blood and Oil are being adapted for television. Project Brazen is represented by United Talent Agency.

Team

Founders

Co-Founder Bradley is the co-author of Billion Dollar Whale, Blood and Oil and author of The Rebel and the Kingdom (Nov 2022). He spent seven years breaking stories and leading investigations at the Wall Street Journal from New York and London. Before that, he covered the Arab Spring from Cairo, Tripoli and Beirut. He started his career as a police reporter at the New York Sun in Manhattan. He is a Pulitzer finalist and a winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for International Reporting. He is also the co-founder of the experimental publication New York Moon.
Co-Founder Tom is the co-author of Billion Dollar Whale, and creator and host of Fat Leonard, a nine-part podcast about a military contractor who corrupted the U.S. Navy, and Crypto Kingpins, about the feud atop the world of crypto that sent the whole tower tumbling down. He spent over twenty years reporting from Asia for the Wall Street Journal and has lived in Thailand, Indonesia, India, Hong Kong and Singapore. His investigations have exposed corporate and government corruption. Tom is a Pulitzer finalist, a Gerald Loeb winner, and he was honored in 2020 with the Shorenstein award from Stanford University for his services to journalism in Asia.

Staff

Executive Producer & Director Nick is a documentary and commercial filmmaker based in London. Most recently the director of the feature documentary LOS ÚLTIMOS FRIKIS (Topic, 2021) and producer of REFLECTION: a walk with water (Tribeca, 2021). He was a founding director at Courageous, CNN's brand studio, where he directed series and commercials for many of the world's biggest brands, winning top industry awards including Cannes Lions, One Show, Webby, and Edward R Murrow Awards. As a documentary filmmaker, Nick has told stories in over two dozen countries and worked for major outlets including VICE, ABC News, and the New York Times. Raised on the coast of Maine, he is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where he was a Willard TC Johnson Fellow in the Film & TV program.
Creative DirectorRyan is a Hong Kong-based creative technologist. He has previously worked at HYPEBEAST, FAKE Design, School of Creative Media at The City University of Hong Kong, and VIPELABS. As a freelance art director, designer, and web developer, Ryan has worked on a wide range of projects with startups and leading global brands. Ryan has a background in art history and visual arts, receiving his MA from The University of Hong Kong and BA from The University of Chicago.
Senior Producer & Project Manager Mariangel is a producer and project manager with over two decades of experience in the media industry. Her portfolio encompasses a diverse array of genres from film, scripted and non-scripted series, documentaries and podcasts. She worked for HBO for almost a decade and has collaborated with industry giants like A24, Netflix, MTV Networks, Disney, Vice, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Head of Development Farah was the lead script writer on Corinna and the King and is steering the development of the podcast into a multi-season television series. She is also a screenwriter and her debut novel is represented by Curtis Brown. A former journalist, Farah reported on the Arab Spring from Cairo and Beirut and wrote profiles and features from New York City. She’s written for The New York Times, The Guardian, the Financial Times, The Independent and the Wall Street Journal and was a visiting fellow for the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Head of Research & Managing Producer Lucy is a British journalist and researcher based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a particular interest in amplifying female voices as well as exposing corrupt governments, financial wrongdoing and corporate greed. Production credits include Managing Producer of the Peabody-nominated podcast, Kabul Falling, and Co-Producer of Spy Valley. Alongside her journalism career, Lucy works with boutique investigations firms conducting open source research in areas such as fraud investigations, litigation support and asset tracing. Outside of work, Lucy is an avid trail runner and live music fan.
Head of Audio Clair is a highly experienced audio professional with over 20 years in the field, covering radio, streaming technology, digital audio, and podcasts. An engineer at heart, Clair started her career in FM radio in Wellington, New Zealand and transitioned to digital when she moved to London in 2008. Since then she’s worked for the BBC, Monocle, NTS Radio and Google.
Programming Manager & Producer Megan is a journalist and producer based in London. She began her career as editor of an online current affairs newsletter but later moved to study investigations, joining Project Brazen in 2022 during the final weeks of her MA at City, University of London. She is managing producer of 2023 podcast Crypto Kingpins, and writes the weekly Brazen Weekender newsletter.
Sirocco Managing Producer & Podcast Strategist Francesca is a multimedia content producer based between London and Milan. With a background in philosophy and cinema criticism, Francesca joined Project Brazen in its early stages of development. Previously, she was on the audio production team of ‘The Economist’ and continues to work on the multi-award winning show ‘British Scandal’ by Wondery.
Financial Controller Lynn is a Chartered Accountant who has worked in finance for over 20 years. After qualifying, Lynn has held positions in a varied range of industries from sports to the healthcare sector. Lynn now works from her home in Cornwall.
Podcast Strategist & Business Associate Nour is a podcast strategist, with degrees and a background in Business Development, Political Science, and Marketing. From researching markets for the Brazen Media projects, to setting target audiences, and assisting with content creation and upkeep of Brazen’s social media pages, she currently holds multiple roles in industries ranging from the F&B sector to media in the podcasting world.
Showrunner, The Closer Golda Arthur is an independent journalist and executive producer. Over the course of her 25 year career in journalism, she has worked on breaking news, produced long-form documentaries and series, and led teams to create award-winning podcasts. She has reported, edited and produced audio stories and shows for the BBC, the CBC, Vox Media, and Marketplace. She teaches audio news at Columbia University and lives in New York City.
Managing Producer Rhubini is a Singapore-based multimedia storyteller with a background in factual content. She has over a decade of experience in producing and development producing. The documentaries she has worked on have aired on Channel News Asia, National Geographic, Discovery, Netflix and more. She is endlessly fascinated by humans and the stories they tell. She also has an MA in New Media and Digital Culture from the University of Amsterdam.
Operations Manager Kaylon is based in Sri Lanka with a background in intellectual property law as well as media, as a prime time radio and television host. She joined Project Brazen in 2023 while finishing her MBA in human resource management from the University of Bedfordshire.
Reporter & Associate Producer Georgia is an investigative journalist and producer based in New York and London. She is an editor for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and her writing regularly appears in The Intercept, USA Today, Slate, and the Daily Beast. She produces documentaries and podcasts for Project Brazen, alongside HBO and other companies.
Reporter & Associate Producer Soobin is a freelance journalist and producer. She joined Project Brazen in 2022 while studying investigative journalism at City, University of London.
Reporter & Associate Producer Ben is a business and finance journalist who has covered the largest banks in the world, predatory lending, private equity, the Trump Organization, Kushner Companies, sovereign wealth funds and cryptocurrency. Previously, he worked at Barron's, HuffPost, and Reuters.
Reporter & Associate Producer Neha is an international multimedia journalist reporting on the intersections of climate, gender, conflict and crisis, and human rights. Neha’s written and video work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, PBS NewsHour, and others. She has received fellowships from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, the United Nations Foundation, the Fuller Project, the Overseas Press Club, the International Women’s Media Foundation, Journalists for Transparency, and the Groundtruth Project. Neha was awarded the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting’s Breakthrough Journalism award in 2022.
Audio-Visual Content Creator Based in, and originally from Belgrade, Serbia, but born and raised in Botswana, Andrija is a sound and interactive artist. Following his studies at NYU between Abu Dhabi, New York and Paris, he has worked on sound design for theatre and film, electroacoustic compositions for ensembles and soloists, interactive installations and audiovisual performances integrating video, light, and physical computing. In 2023, he founded Strega AV, an audio-visual design studio and consultancy based in Belgrade.
Social Media Strategist, Host & Content Creator Salber Lee Williams is a Berlin-based, Zimbabwean-born-and-raised performer, director, and content creator. An NYU Alum — having studied in Abu Dhabi, New York, Shanghai, and Sydney — she works across theater, performance art, film and video, collaborating with various artists and companies globally.

Partners

Host of The Closer Aimee Keane is a Brooklyn-based journalist and podcast host. She started her journalism career at the Financial Times covering the healthcare and leisure sectors, as well as the US economy. She went on to be the founding executive producer and host of the FT’s first narrative business podcast, Behind the Money, which imaginatively explored the stories and personalities behind the biggest financial headlines. In 2020, Behind the Money won the Wincott Award for best audio journalism. Today, Aimee is the co-founder of Bazaar Audio, a podcast production studio where she and co-founder Cardiff Garcia create, host and produce narrative and conversational podcasts about the economy.
Host of People Like Us Kim is an Emmy-award winning journalist, analyst and author who covered the Middle East and American foreign policy for twenty years for the BBC and the Financial Times, from Beirut and Washington D.C. She is the author of "Black Wave," a NYT notable of 2020, and the NYT best seller "The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power.
Host of Gateway Mitchell is an award-winning crime and security journalist producing the Gateway project, a multi-season exploration of Europe’s cocaine trade. As a photographer and bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers, Mitch covered the Syrian revolution, regional war against ISIS and later uncovered ISIS networks across Europe for BuzzFeed News and now frequently contributes to VICE World News and others on crime and intelligence matters. As a photographer, he’s covered wars, social issues and natural disasters around the world. His Twitter account leans heavily towards cat content.
Host of Kabul Falling and Ritually Nelufar is an award-winning journalist and presenter who has worked across America and British Television. 2019 saw her join Morgan Freeman as a contributing presenter on season 3 of Story of God for National Geographic as well as joining Doha Debates as a correspondent, bringing to the debate topics and themes to global audiences across digital platforms. She has worked across the BBC, Netflix and The Guardian. Nelufar presented the flagship live news programme Newsround for 3 years and more recently she has been a regular on BBC One’s religion and ethics discussion show Sunday Morning Live. She has received a plethora of awards including the Livingstone Award for Excellence in Reporting, the International Affairs Award from the Association of International Broadcasters, the Best Investigation Award and Journalist of the Year at the Asian Media Awards, the coveted Gracie award for Correspondent of the Year and nominated for the Edward J. Meeman Award for Environmental Reporting.
Host of The Sound Nicky was a reporter for The Guardian based in New York, where he developed a specialty in the messy intersection of internet subculture and politics. He left to launch New Statesman America, a US sister-site to the UK-based political magazine, then went into audio, writing and presenting Finding Q, a limited series made for Audible by Tortoise Studios, before joining Project Brazen for some projects.
Host for The Professor Simon is an award-winning writer and journalist whose work has been published by The Economist, the Financial Times, Fortune, the New York Review of Books and Travel and Leisure. He was previously senior editor at The Economist's features magazine 1843 and associate editor of Granta. In 2022 he won a Lowell Thomas award from the Society of American Travel Writers.
Reporter for Dynamite Doug Tim is a contributing writer for The Atlantic magazine. Previously he worked for Reuters news agency in Yangon and Chicago. His work has appeared in outlets including WIRED, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. He is a two-time finalist for The Livingston Award for International Reporting for work from Hong Kong, Myanmar and India. His book on Hong Kong will be published next year.
Host for Spy Valley Zach is a national security and intelligence journalist and former correspondent at Yahoo News and staff writer at the Aspen Institute. His investigative reporting has been featured in Politico, Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, and Axios, among other outlets. He also previously authored Axios's "Codebook" Newsletter. He is a past recipient of the Gerald R. Ford prize for Defense Reporting and a Livingston Award finalist.

Advisors

David is the founder and Chief Executive of Pi Capital. He has financial interests in several other businesses and industries and has previously been involved as an investor, advisor, and board member of some of the most successful health and fitness companies in the world. David has acted as Project Brazen’s financial advisor from its early stages of development.

Representatives

Jake is an entertainment lawyer and founder of Levy Law. His practice encompasses a broad range of transactions in the entertainment and media industries, with an emphasis on television, motion picture, podcast, book publishing, celebrity branding/endorsement and music matters. He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Prior to founding Levy Law, Jake was a partner at entertainment law firm Franklin, Weinrib, Rudell & Vassallo, working with the firm for over a decade. Before that, Jake was an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett where he provided strategic counsel on transactional intellectual property and corporate law matters.
United Talent Agency's Partner & Head of Audio Oren Rosenbaum represents Project Brazen. Charged with leading UTA's VR initiatives, Oren's recent projects include placing director Jeff Nicholas with the Hulu/Live Nation VR concert performance series, plus a partnership between Turner Networks and Wattpad stories. Among his diverse client roster: DJ Khaled and music platform Musical.ly.

Pitch to us

Have a story worth telling? Project Brazen is always looking for ambitious, narrative non-fiction projects to produce as podcasts, documentaries and other formats.

We work and collaborate with journalists all over the world, to help develop their narratives in an engaging medium to captive audiences. Feel free to get in touch with an idea – even if it’s some reporting you have done previously but you feel could be the start of an exciting project.

Press