Director and Co-Executive Producer · CNN / HBO Max
As America approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, This Land traces the dramatic story of how a fragile nation on the Atlantic coast expanded across a continent through six defining frontiers that reshaped the country forever. Through the voices of descendants connected to these pivotal moments, including the families of William Clark, Sacagawea, James Monroe, John Brown, Crazy Horse, and Kit Carson, This Land uncovers a history that remains deeply contested and continues to shape America today.
Watch →Series Director · BBC
Multiple award-winning series, following the jaw-dropping work of the surgical team at Addenbrooke's Hospital. Using an innovative rig setup, this series was the first to follow cases through from A&E to emergency surgery.
Watch →Series Director · Discovery / HBO Max
Made in collaboration with Octavia Spencer, and with unique access to the FBI, this retrospective anthology series reveals the story behind some of the Bureau's most remarkable cases, many of which have never been told before.
Watch →Director · Disney+ / Nat Geo
The 1970s tested the FBI as never before. This series revisits its biggest cases through the agents who worked them and the people they pursued. Drawing on untapped FBI archive, and using technically innovative drama reconstruction, this retrospective series is not just a story of the FBI, but the story of America.
Watch →Director / Cinematographer · Channel 4
In the aftermath of Sarah Everard's shocking murder by a serving police officer, journalist Ellie Flynn reveals the scale of sexual misconduct by serving police officers, and asks: why isn't more being done to investigate these crimes?
Nominated for Investigation of the Year at the British Journalism Awards
Watch →Series Director / Cinematographer · History
Starring Damian Lewis in his first factual role, and utilising innovative and highly stylised reconstructions, this docu-drama reveals the remarkable true stories behind the most significant spy operations of the last forty years.
Nominated for the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Documentary Series
Watch →Edit Producer · Hulu
A devastating and deeply personal account of the 2012 disappearance of a sixteen-year-old in West Virginia, and the search that led to her closest friends. Told through social media posts, intimate interviews and Skylar's own words, the series explores friendship, identity and betrayal among teenagers growing up online.
Watch →Director · BBC
A retrospective series tracing the complex relationship between celebrity, the media and the public in the first 20 years of this century. Following the rise of reality TV, social media stars and celebrity politicians, the series asks how our fixation on celebrity has come to shape our world.
Watch →Lead Edit Producer · Discovery+ / CNN
A six-part food and travel series following the celebrated chef and humanitarian across his home country with his three American-raised daughters. Eating their way through Spain's regions, they meet local experts, renowned chefs and old friends who share the traditions and stories behind the country's food.
Emmy award winner, 2023
Watch →Director / Cinematographer · Channel 5 / Netflix
Feature documentary, narrated by James D'Arcy, telling the inside story of the week between Princess Diana's death and her funeral. Through exclusive interviews with her staff, Downing Street advisers, journalists and members of the public, it tells the story of a truly unprecedented moment of national grief and frustration. The film reached the Netflix top 10 in the UK.
Watch →Director / Cinematographer · Nat Geo
An immersive documentary series for National Geographic, following international teams of archaeologists through a full season of excavations across Egypt. Crawling beneath pyramids, opening long-lost tombs and unearthing 3,000-year-old mummies, they race to uncover the secrets of ancient Egypt while battling heat and difficult terrain.
Watch →Director / Cinematographer · Discovery+
Drama documentary series telling the story of the Children of God, one of the world's most notorious cults, through three British women who were born into it. Hope, Verity and Celeste speak out about their childhoods, their escape and their decades-long fight for justice.
Watch →Director / Cinematographer · BBC
BBC Four series marking 70 years of the NHS, through the mementos and memories of the people who use and work in it.
Watch →Director · BBC
In this four-part BBC Four series, art historian James Fox traces how the power of the image transformed the modern world, from the camera's radical new way of seeing to the propaganda films, moon landings and advertising dreams of the 20th century. It ends with a question for today: why are images more powerful, and less trusted, than ever before?
Watch →Ben Ryder is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and cinematographer who brings journalistic integrity to every story he tells.
Having started his career at the BBC, working in the history and arts departments, he now makes premium documentaries and docudramas for global audiences. Over 15 years, he has made series and single films for most major British and American broadcasters and streamers, moving between current affairs investigations, retrospective series, true crime and large-scale drama documentary.
A cinematographer as well as a director, Ben is recognised for the elevated visual language of his films. But the look is there to serve the people telling the story, never the other way round.
Recent projects include This Land, CNN and HBO Max's six-part history of how America was made; Cops on Trial, an award-nominated Channel 4 investigation into sexual misconduct in the police; and Surgeons: At the Edge of Life, the BBC's highest-rating specialist factual series.
Ben is currently developing a range of projects, including a feature documentary for theatrical release.
Get in touch about a project, or just to say hello.