Moira Demos CC'96, S0A'08, filmmaker, producer and editor, recently skyrocketed to prominence with her Netflix documentary Making a Murderer which she co-directed with filmmaker Laura Ricciardi SOA'07. The two chronicled the saga of Steven Avery, who was exonerated for a crime for which he spent 18 years in prison, only to be later charged with murder. Co-directors Demos and Ricciardi became intrigued by Avery's story while graduate film students at Columbia when they read the article "Freed by DNA, Now Charged in New Crime" in The New York Times. Fascinated by Stephen Avery's case, they rented a car and borrowed a camera and began filming the day after they arrived in Wisconsin.

The 10-part documentary series, which premiered in December and is the culmination of a decade of work, has been a noticeable fixture in the press recently. The filmmakers discussed their work on TODAY, where Demos explained, "Our goal going in was always to start a dialogue." The show has also been featured prominently in the The New York Times since its positive reviews upon release. Most recently, Making a Murderer was covered in The New York Times because it inspired a petition asking the president to pardon the two men. The petition gathered more than 350,000 signatures at Change.org, and a separate one at Whitehouse.gov attracted 129,000 signatures, prompting a White House response.