Eda Benjakul is an Emmy-award winning Producer / Director. She’s known for her acclaimed work in the lifestyle and culinary space as a show-runner/EP for Food Network, Tastemade, and bravoTV. A pioneer in the digital content space, Eda was part of the start-up team for ReplayTV (now Roku), and created the initial library of food content for YouTube Premium’s food vertical. In 2019, Eda was part of the collective of women directors of the DGA WSC’s PSA documentary, ‘Hope Builders: Making a Difference in the Inland Empire’, which aired on PBS KVCR. Her short documentary, ‘Home Restaurant’, was an Official Selection of the Oscar-qualifying AmDocs Film Festival; and won Best Short Documentary at the California International Shorts Film Festival. She has served as the Co-Chair of the WSC ad-hoc committee, Best DirectHer for the last two years.
Eda began her career at ABC News as a field reporter and then moved to entertainment as a reporter for MTV Asia News and Reuters TV. Since joining the DGA from her commercial and branded content work, Eda has been creating her own projects, including writing the pilot, ‘Star of Siam’, based on her aunt’s life as a CIA operative in 1960’s Thailand. The project was selected as a Sundance Episodic Lab Semi-Finalist. Drawing from her experience as a mom of a teen-aged son, her story-telling interests are focused on the YA genre. She is currently transitioning into directing narrative episodic television. Eda is a graduate of the University of Michigan and holds an MBA in Finance from New York University.