Greg Jacobs

Greg Jacobs is co-founder of Siskel/Jacobs Productions (SJP), a Chicago-based television and documentary production company founded in 2005 with Jon Siskel. 

Jacobs and Siskel produced and directed the documentary feature Louder Than a Bomb, which follows four Chicago-area high school poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in the world’s largest youth slam. Since its premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival in March 2010, the film has won several festival prizes. It was also selected for the 2011 American Documentary Showcase, a program created by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs “to cultivate greater understanding among people around the world.” As part of the Showcase, the film has traveled to Angola, Burma, Jordan, Malawi, the United Arab Emirates, and Zambia.

Prior to Louder Than a Bomb, SJP produced the Emmy-winning History Channel program 102 Minutes That Changed America, which reconstructs—in real time—the events of 9/11 in New York City, using only sound and video from that morning. More than five million viewers tuned in to the premiere, making it the second most-watched telecast in the network’s history and won numerous awards including three Primetime Emmys and named the Best Nonfiction TV Episode of 2008 by iTunes. Most importantly, 102 Minutes has become standard viewing in high school and college classrooms across the country, a way for teachers to introduce their students to the emotional and historical impact of 9/11. 

Jacobs served as VP/Chief Creative Officer at Towers Productions, where he oversaw the content of more than two hundred documentaries on five different networks, including award-winning shows and series for A&E, History, Discovery, The Weather Channel, and CNN. A graduate of Yale University, Greg has a master’s degree in history from Ohio State, and is the author of Getting Around Brown: Desegregation, Development, and the Columbus Public Schools.