BIO
Dolly Li is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker known for investigative character-driven stories that unpack the complexities of race, religion, power, and culture.
She most recently directed Ghosts of Chinatown for Hulu’s true crime docuseries Out There and served as a cultural consultant on Ryan Coogler’s 2025 thriller Sinners.
Dolly began her career at Al Jazeera’s AJ+, where she produced and hosted Untold America, earning the show its first Northern California Emmy in 2017. In 2018, she was tapped to launch Goldthread, a digital video platform under the South China Morning Post, where she led editorial strategy to bring nuanced stories from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to a global audience.
After returning to the U.S., she created and showran Historian’s Take for PBS, a pop culture and history series that became the first PBS Digital Studios show nominated for both an NAACP Image Award and a Daytime Emmy in 2023.
Dolly is the founder of Plum Studios, where she develops documentaries and nonfiction series. She is currently directing a feature documentary about chef Martin Yan, with support from ITVS.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, she studied visual arts and economics at Rice University and is now based in Los Angeles.
Awards
2019, Silver, The Telly Awards, Social Video: News & Information for “Chinese Food: An All-American Cuisine”
2018, Winner, Northern California Regional Emmy Award, Historic/Cultural-Feature Segment for “How Chop Suey Saved San Francisco's Chinatown"
2018, Winner, Society of Professional Journalists, Longform Storytelling for series “Chinese Food: An All-American Cuisine”
2018, Finalist, CINE Golden Eagle Awards, Nonfiction Content: Series/Mini-Series for series “Chinese Food: An All-American Cuisine“
2018, Honoree, Webby Awards, Film & Video: Food & Drink for series “Chinese Food: An All-American Cuisine”
Public Speaking
2018, Panelist, Crafting a Narrative, Asian American Journalists Association’s National Convention
2018, Keynote Speaker, Wellesley College’s annual Asian Awareness Conference
2017, Speaker, “Using and Abusing Typography: How Social Video Is Playing Games With Your Heart” at SRCCON