Andrea Nevins, a documentary filmmaker who received an Oscar nomination for her uplifting 1997 short film Still Kicking, has died of breast cancer. She was 63.
A writer, director and producer, Nevins died Saturday at her home in Los Angeles surrounded by her family and her dogs.
Nevins’ love of storytelling led her to a career covering subjects that spotlighted the good in humanity, first in her work as a journalist, which included stints as a reporter for NPR in Washington and for ABC News in New York, where she earned an Emmy.
Still Kicking, her first independent documentary, focused on The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a wildly popular dance and musical revue that featured performers 55 and older and played at the historic Plaza Theatre. For co-producing the heartwarming 38-minute film, she received an Oscar nom for best documentary short.
Her other projects included The Other F Word (2011), State of Play: Happiness (2014), Play It Forward (2015), Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie (2018), Hysterical (2021), and, most recently, The Cowboy and the Queen (2023).
Her interest in underdogs and in lives in transition led her to focus on such topics as punk rockers as they become fathers, female stand-ups, retiring NFL players, the cultural legacy of Barbie and an unlikely relationship between a California cowboy and the queen of England.
Andrea Blaugrund was born in New York on March 15, 1962. Her father, Stanley, was an otolaryngologist, and her mother, Annette, was a curator of paintings, sculpture and drawings, an author and a lecturer.
As a youngster, she performed ballet and was a swimmer, poet, photographer and president of her high school, the Chapin School. She then graduated cum laude from Harvard University, majoring in social studies.
In 1996, she married David Nevins, the producer who later became chairman and CEO of Showtime and Paramount Premium Group.
She was passionate about creating and championing meaningful causes as a founding member of the Los Angeles synagogue IKAR; as a founder of Larchmont Charter School; as a member of the Southern California board and executive committee of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF; and as a founder of X Fund, a donor-advised fund that addresses the needs of women and girls in L.A.
Nevins also enjoyed watching movies and loved dogs, style and taking walks on the beaches of Montecito, California.
In addition to her husband, survivors include her children, Clara, 25, Charlie, 22, and Jesse, 19; and her dogs, Phoebe and Frank. Donations in her memory can be made here.
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