Jemma Gander

Jemma Gander is a self-shooting director-producer with more than 20 years’ industry experience. Starting as an intern and then a runner, Jemma worked her way up through the ranks of researcher, assistant producer and producer to directing, producing and edit producing single longform documentaries.

Jemma was the first person in her family to earn A-levels let alone graduate with a degree, earning the latter in journalism from the University of Cardiff. Her journey into factual TV and documentaries began in 2002 as an unpaid intern, where she worked two days a week in Southampton tracking down lost P&O shipping containers in order to pay for her train fares to London. She started in current affairs before moving into more character-driven, observational documentaries, producing projects for the likes of Channel 4’s Cutting Edge: Obsessive Compulsive Hoarder (2011, which was shortlisted for a Grierson award). She also made a film for Al Jazeera’s Witness series completely on her own entitled The Last Battle (2013).

Additional credits include co-directing-producing The Wrong Man: 17 Years Behind Bars (BBC Two, 2024) and directing-producing I’m an Alcoholic: Inside Recovery (BBC Two, 2022), Jailed Over a Group Chat (Channel 4, 2022) and How to Stay out of Jail (Channel 4, 2020). She also has directing credits for Emergency (Channel 4, 2022-2023), and producer, director and/or edit producer credits for seasons three and four of Ambulance (BBC One, 2018-2019), Junior Doctors season five (BBC Three, 2019) and Police: Hour of Duty (Channel 5, 2020).