About Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the National Endowment for the Humanities and distributed by PBS. Burns lives in the small town of Walpole, New Hampshire. Burns's widely known documentary series include The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009), Prohibition (2011), The Roosevelts (2014), The Vietnam War (2017), Country Music (2019), and The American Revolution (2025). He codirected The Central Park Five (2012 with his daughter Sarah Burns). He produced The West (1996), Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (2015) and The Gene: An Intimate History (2020). Burns's documentaries have earned two Academy Award nominations (for 1981's Brooklyn Bridge and 1985's The Statue of Liberty) and have won several Emmy Awards, among other honors. Burns worked in a record store to help pay his tuition. In 1976, Burns, Elaine Mayes, and college classmate Roger Sherman founded a production company named Florentine Films in Walpole, New Hampshire.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.