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Arnold Shapiro    

Arnold Shapiro is the Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning producer, director, and writer of the documentary, SCARED STRAIGHT!

Arnold Shapiro is the Academy Award®- and Emmy Award-winning producer, director, and writer of the documentary, SCARED STRAIGHT! Shapiro has received 16 Emmys, one Oscar, a Peabody, and 150 other awards for television documentaries he has produced during his 30-year career. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from University of  Massachusetts, Boston.

During his career, Shapiro has produced 19 series, five TV movies, and dozens of primetime documentary and reality specials. Among the most notable are SCARED STRAIGHT! (Academy Award and eight Emmys); “Scared Silent: Exposing & Ending Child Abuse,”; hosted by Oprah Winfrey, which aired simultaneously on CBS, NBC, PBS, followed by ABC; “Rescue 911,” which CBS Network series aired for seven seasons and is credited with saving the lives of more than 350 of its viewers; “Kids Killing Kids/Kids Saving Kids,” which aired commercial-free simultaneously on CBS and FOX, and received an Emmy; “Break The Silence: Kids Against Child Abuse,” (Peabody Winner) which aired commercial-free on CBS; “The Teen Files” seven prime time specials, which received three Emmy Awards and dealt with issues including teen smoking, drinking, drugs, violence, sexuality, bullying, and violence; “Flipped” an MTV series that put teenagers on the receiving end of their own dangerous and destructive behavior; and “Small Town Ecstasy,” an HBO documentary showing the destructive consequences of the drug ecstasy on one small town family.

More recently, Shapiro has been executive producing some of reality television’s most successful shows, including three seasons of “Big Brother” on CBS. Shapiro is a native of Los Angeles, attended UCLA, and says that he strives to live his professional and personal life according to “The Golden Rule.” His love of making documentaries is only exceeded by his love of animals and of his wife, Karen.

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