Independent journalist, photographer, and filmmaker
About
Laurel is an Emmy-nominated independent journalist, photographer, filmmaker, and National Geographic Explorer from Hong Kong. In 2020, she was named an honoree for the IWMF Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism award for her work during the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests. She has worked for VICE, HBO, SHOWTIME, Al Jazeera, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Getty, the Guardian, Reuters, National Geographic, AFP, the Los Angeles Times, and more.
She is currently co-directing an independent feature documentary following the lives of three people in Donbas, Ukraine, throughout the war. She was an executive producer for Tigre Gente, a 2021 documentary in which she went undercover to investigate the trade in jaguar parts in South America and Southeast Asia. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, was a part of the official selection at Telluride Mountainfilm Festival, and won Best Mountain Environment & Natural History Film at the Banff Film Festival.
She is also researching the impact of media on manta ray conservation for her MPhil in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management at Christ Church, Oxford University, with support from the National Geographic Society. She is an accomplished rugby player, having represented Hong Kong in the 2017 Rugby World Cup.
