Ilana Fayerman: Bio

Ilana Fayerman - Host / Anthropologist

Born on Long Island, but raised in sunny Florida, Ilana started her performance training in Musical Theatre. Always active in the central Florida theatrical community, Ilana regularly performed at Universal Studios and in the Orlando International Fringe Festival. Upon graduating from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Musical Theatre Performance, she set out for Vancouver, B.C. to try her hand at film and television. After appearing in small roles on Showtime, FOX, and Oxygen, Ilana began to consider a performance career that spotlighted truths about the world, rather than fictional stories and characters. However, having never traveled off of the continent, she figured some anthropological and geographical training was in order.

Arriving in New York City in 2003, she began working toward her master’s degree at Columbia University, and received her MA in Socio-Cultural Anthropology with her area of minor study in documentary cinematography. Some of her favorite themes to explore are global rituals of medicine, healing, music and religion; as well as humanitarian challenges around the world.

She has studied under some of the industry leaders in documentary television, including Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Larry Engel. In March 2008, Ilana interviewed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. She has also interviewed Her Royal Highness Princess Basma bint Ali, of Jordan; travel host, chef, and writer Anthony Bourdain; Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Greg Marinovich; music and fashion mogul Russell Simmons; Grammy Award-winning musician Ziggy Marley; and 5-Star chef Eric Ripert, among others.

Being a hungry Italian and living by the “try anything once” mentality, Ilana also loves to sample indigenous foods; though, she draws the line at spiders! To date, she has snacked on the likes of salt & vinegar crickets in NYC, goat heart in Wadi Rum, wildebeest and raw crocodile in KwaZulu Natal, and some very large, tomato sauce-drenched Mopani worms in Johannesburg.

Ilana is the recipient of a 2009 GOLD Parent’s Choice Award for her work as a producer on ProjectExplorer.org’s Jordan series.