Laura Ling

Laura Ling is the Director of Development for Discovery Digital Networks , the web-native video arm of Discovery Communications. In this role, she oversees the creation and production of original web series. She also is the host of series such as Seeker 's Going Off Grid , highlighting individuals living disconnected from our modern world, as well as Rituals with Laura Ling , taking viewers on a journey through the psyche and habits of extraordinary individuals.

Prior to joining Discovery Digital Networks, Ling hosted two documentary series airing on the E! Network: E! Investigates and Society X with Laura Ling/i>. The shows investigate topics such as teen suicide, the challenges faced by military spouses and underground youth subcultures in America.

Previously, Ling served as Vice President of Current TVs journalism department and created Vanguard, the critically acclaimed investigative documentary series. As a Vanguard correspondent, she traveled the world to report on subjects such as slave labor in the Amazon, the drug war in Mexico, Internet censorship in China, and womens rights in Turkey. Under her leadership, Vanguard received numerous prestigious awards including the Alfred I. DuPont Award and several Emmy nominations.

In March 2009, while reporting on the trafficking of North Korean women, Ling and her colleague Euna Lee were detained by North Korean soldiers along the Chinese-North Korean border. They were arrested and held captive in North Korea for 140 days before being granted a special pardon and returning to the United States. Ling documented her experience in the 2010 memoir, Somewhere Inside: One Sisters Captivity in North Korea and the Others Fight to Bring Her Home, that she penned with her sister, Lisa.

As a correspondent for SoCal Connected, the hard-hitting news magazine series airing on KCET, Lings work was recognized with both an Emmy and a national Edward R. Murrow award. Ling has served as a producer for Channel One News and co-created Breaking it Down, a documentary series on MTV that aired between 1999 and 2001. Her work has appeared on ABC's Nightline, NBC, and PBS. She has also written editorials for the Los Angeles Times and CNN.com.

Ling was named one of Glamour Magazines Women of the Year in 2009 and is a Service Ambassador for Points of Light, the nonpartisan organization dedicated to solving social problems through voluntary service. She resides in Mill Valley, California with her husband and two children.