Content

The Secret Daughter

The Secret Daughter is a riveting limited series chronicling one adopted woman’s search for her roots - an odyssey that prompts deep questions about identity, family and what drives us to understand our origins.

Role

Executive Producer

Industry

Narrative Audio / Investigative Reporting

Duration

Limited Series

Unpacking a complex identity tale

Nikki Carlson was adopted as a toddler into a Minnesota game-hunting family and raised in a wholly unremarkable setting. Haunted by the mysteries of her origins, once Nikki comes of age, she begins to search for her biological roots. What she uncovers is more surreal and twisted than anything she could have imagined.

Her quest to understand her roots brings her into the world of New York high society and then in an unforeseen turn of events, across the Atlantic and into old Italian aristocracy. She unlocks these pieces of information one painstaking step at a time, with people trying to block her path at every turn.

Narrative development and product voice

As executive producer, I acquired this series and oversaw its narrative development and story structure. One of the compelling aspects of the reporting was the access to Nikki Carlson. However, from the outset, I emphasized the need for the series to maintain a strong journalistic lens and not overindex on any one point of view. We’d know the show succeeded if audiences had diverse and divergent opinions on the people and events - which they did.

Impact and outcomes

Held Top 100 Most Listened Audible Plus titles for several months
Exceeded listening projections; drew impassioned customer reviews

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