Film maker and anthropologist Graham Townsley is twice Emmy-nominated and has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. His films have been shown on PBS, National Geographic TV, the BBC, Channel 4, ARTE and the Discovery Channel. He also writtes screenplays for historical dramas.
In 2018, Graham and his company, Shining Red, are at work on a two-hour PBS special about evolution called “Lineage.”
His screenplay “Singer” about the lives of Jewish artists in 1930’s Berlin is in development with producer Harry Winer of Smash Media and a ten-part drama series, “Yucatan”, based on the true story of the love affair between a Mexican revolutionary and a New York Times journalist in the 1920’s, is also in development.
In February 2018, his documentary “First face of America” premiered on NOVA/PBS and got the highest viewing figures for any NOVA documentary in three years.   In 2016, his feature documentary “Landfill Harmonic”, about kids from a slum in Paraguay who made an orchestra out of trash, was released in theaters across the USA and received numerous awards.  Also in 2016, his tw0-hour PBS film about famed biologist E.O Wilson, “Of Ants and Men”, garnered awards and critical acclaim at numerous festivals across the country.
His 2015 film for National Geographic and NOVA PBS, “Dawn of Humanity”, about the discovery of new human ancestors in South Africa, was named by the New York Times as one of the ten best documentaries of 2015 and nominated for an Emmy award.
Graham started his career working on ethnographic films for the BBC. Films like “The Shaman and his Apprentice” based on his own fieldwork with a native American tribe of the Peruvian Amazon and “From the Heart of the World”, about the Kogi Indians of the Sierra Nevada, Colombia, established him in the documentary world.  He went on to make films both about other living indigenous peoples and ancient cultures such as the Inca, Maya, Aztecs and ancient Rome.
In the early 2000’s he was series producer of “The Glory that was Rome” for the Discovery Channel and “Treasure Seekers”, a 13-part series about explorers of the ancient world, for National Geographic.
He has gone on to produce, write and direct films such as “Becoming Human”, a 3-part series on human evolution for NOVA PBS, “Dawn of the Maya” for National Geographic TV, “The Great Inca Rebellion”, “King Solomon’s Mines”, “Magic Mountain”, “Maya Apocalypse” and many more.
In 2008, Graham established his own company, Shining Red Productions. 
He speaks four languages and has made a number of Spanish-language films.
He lives in Washington DC