Bio
Dolly Li is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker from Brooklyn, NY. She is currently the director and creator of the pop culture and history show, Historian’s Take, on PBS Origins. Her work focuses on culturally nuanced stories about global communities.
She cut her teeth as a journalist at Al Jazeera. In 2017, she received a Regional Emmy in Northern California for her short documentary, How Chop Suey Saved San Francisco's Chinatown, the first episode of an award-winning series examining Chinese cuisine from the Mississippi Delta to the San Gabriel Valley. She’s since produced viral short documentaries from Texas to Beijing to Seoul. She explores themes of land, globalization, and identity through the lens of food and the perspective of a Cantonese American native New Yorker.
Dolly has been part of the launch of several international digital publications, including Al Jazeera’s AJ+ English and AJ+ Español channels. In 2018, she co-founded the digital publication, Goldthread, and served as its content director, leading editorial, creative, and social media strategy. Dolly has experience reporting domestically throughout the U.S. and internationally from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China. She navigates stories in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Spanish.
Previously, Dolly was a co-lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, advising second-year multimedia students through the completion of their Master’s thesis projects. She also served as Vice President of the AAJA San Francisco Chapter, providing professional development and mentoring to students and minority journalists.
In 2019, Dolly founded her production company, Plum Studios, which is producing nonfiction stories for digital and premium platforms. She studied Visual Arts and Economics at Rice University and is 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