Born in Melbourne, Australia and schooled in the UK, Jezza Neumann then went to a college of higher education to study business studies. After completing this course he travelled the world for 3 years and on his return started in the television industry working as a runner for Catalyst Television on the Chelsea flower Show for BBC 2. After various jobs with various companies he progressed from runner to Production Manager and in January 1996 joined True Vision Productions.
Having a passion for Stills photography he took a keen interest in camera work and editing and over the years he honed his skills in those areas. His first broadcast filming opportunity came with Eyes of Child as the hours required “hanging” with the families meant that the budget couldn’t carry a fully fledged Cameraman. Since cutting his teeth on that production he hasn’t looked back, working under the guidance of multi Emmy and BAFTA winning director, Brian Woods.
China’s Stolen Children was his first film as director, and won three British Academy Awards. He has since followed up on this success with a number of award winning films including the feature length War Child and the multi-award winning Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children. More recently his film, Poor Kids, had an incredible impact, leading to questions being asked in the House of Commons during Prime Minister’s Question Time and inspiring over 950 viewer comments on the BBC Blog pages, over double the previous record number.