About

Farah Otero-Amad

Farah Otero-Amad is redefining how news reaches audiences, directing award-winning documentaries, and producing short-form vertical videos that reach millions across The Wall Street Journal's platforms. A trilingual video producer and host, she writes, shoots, and edits stories that make global issues accessible and culturally resonant. 

As the only video journalist selected for The New York Times Fellowship, Farah covered some of the country’s most urgent stories—the 2024 Presidential Election, The Supreme Court’s TikTok ruling, and Columbia University protest arrests that reignited the national debate on free speech. That same year she directed her first short documentary, Breaking the Cycle, which takes viewers inside a hip-hop school in Medellin, Colombia where students compete for the title of the city’s top breakdancer. The film won Best Documentary Short at the New York Cinefest in April 2025.

At Apple TV’s Emmy-nominated show The Problem with Jon Stewart, Farah helped produce “The War Over Gender,” including Stewart’s viral interview with Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.The episode earned a GLAAD Award and sparked national dialogue on trans rights and government overreach. Her career began at NBC News through its prestigious News Associates Program, where she produced bilingual reporting on underserved communities. She also contributed to Peacock TV’s investigative series on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, amplifying survivors’ voices in one of the most high-profile abuse cases of the MeToo era.

Farah earned her master’s degree at Columbia Journalism School, where her thesis was published by  NBC News, and graduated with the highest honors from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Division I athlete and on-camera sports reporter. She has represented the U.S. abroad as a Press Fellow at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, worked in global affairs at the State Department, taught English in Tokyo, and was granted a Fulbright award for journalists in Berlin. 

Beyond her reporting, she mentors high school students in video producing and documentaries, supporting the next generation of storytellers through ReelWorks in Brooklyn.

Awards

  • Davis Projects for Peace Award Colombia, 2024

  • Berlin Capital Program Fulbright Award, 2022

  • International House of New York Digital Media Fellow, 2021-2023 

  • Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Graduate Fellow, 2018 

  • Fulbright English Teaching Award Argentina, 2018

  • Jack G. Shaheen Mass Communications Scholarship Award, 2018

  • Mitsui Scholar, International House NYC, 2018

  • Summa Cum Laude and Dean’s List University of Pennsylvania, 2018

  • Pi Sigma Alpha, Political Science Honors Society, 2017-2018

  • Sphinx Senior Honors Society, University of Pennsylvania 2017-2018

  • U.S Embassy in Madrid Press Fellow, 2017

  • U.S. State Department Bureau of Populations, Refugees, and Migration Fellow, 2016