Ronan Farrow
Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow[1] (born December 19, 1987) is an American journalist. The son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen, he is known for his investigative reporting on sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, which was published in The New Yorker magazine. The magazine won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for this reporting, sharing the award with The New York Times. Farrow has worked for UNICEF and as a government advisor.
Ronan Farrow
December 19, 1987
Satchel Farrow, Seamus Farrow
- United States
- Ireland[a]
Journalist
2001–present
- Jon Lovett (2011–2022)
- John Farrow (grandfather)
- Maureen O'Sullivan (grandmother)
- Patrick Villiers Farrow (uncle)
- Prudence Farrow (aunt)
- Tisa Farrow (aunt)
- Letty Aronson (aunt)
- Soon-Yi Previn (sister/step-mother)
- Fletcher Previn (brother)
- Moses Farrow (brother)
Early life and education[edit]
Farrow was born on December 19, 1987, in New York City to actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen. He is their only biological child.[2][3] His mother's family is Catholic and his father is Jewish.[4] His given names honor National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige[5] and maternal grandmother, Irish-American actress Maureen O'Sullivan. Now known as Ronan, he was given the surname "Farrow" to avoid confusion. His siblings have the surnames Previn, from those born or adopted during his mother's marriage to composer Andre Previn, and Farrow, for children she adopted after she and Previn divorced.[6]
As a child, Farrow skipped grades in school and took courses with the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University.[7] At age 11, he began his studies at Bard College at Simon's Rock, later transferring to Bard College for a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy.[8] He graduated at age 15, the youngest to do so at that institution.[9][10]
He entered Yale Law School, from which he received a Juris Doctor in 2009.[10][11] He later passed the New York State Bar examination.[12] Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, Farrow earned a Doctor of Philosophy in political science from the University of Oxford, where he was a student of Magdalen College.[13] His dissertation was titled "Shadow armies: political representation and strategic reality in America's proxy wars" and was supervised by Desmond King.[14]
Career[edit]
Public service[edit]
From 2001 to 2009, Farrow served as a UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth,[15] advocating for children and women caught up in the ongoing crisis in Sudan's Darfur region[16] and assisting in fundraising and addressing United Nations affiliated groups in the United States.[16][17] During this time, he also made joint trips to the Darfur region of Sudan with his mother, actress Mia Farrow, who is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.[18] He subsequently advocated for the protection of Darfuri refugees.[19] Following his time in Sudan, Farrow was affiliated with the Genocide Intervention Network.[20]
During his studies at Yale Law School, Farrow interned at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell and in the office of the chief counsel at the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, focusing on international human rights law.[19][21]
In 2009, Farrow joined the Obama administration, as Special Adviser for Humanitarian and NGO Affairs in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.[19][22][23] He was part of a team recruited by diplomat Richard Holbrooke,[24] for whom Farrow had previously worked as a speechwriter.[25] For the next two years, Farrow was responsible for "overseeing the U.S. Government's relationships with civil society and nongovernmental actors" in Afghanistan and Pakistan.[19][22]
In 2011, Farrow was appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as her Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues[26] and Director of the State Department's Office of Global Youth Issues.[19] The office was created as a result of a multi-year task-force appointed by Clinton to review the United States' economic and social policies on youth.[27] Farrow co-chaired the working group with senior United States Agency for International Development staff member David Barth beginning in 2010.[28][29] Farrow's appointment and the creation of the office were announced by Clinton as part of a refocusing on youth following the Arab Spring revolutions.[30] Farrow was responsible for U.S. youth policy and programming with an aim toward "empower[ing] young people as economic and civic actors."[19] Farrow concluded his term as Special Adviser in 2012, with his policies and programs continuing under his successor.[31]
Recognition[edit]
In 2008, Farrow was awarded Refugees International's McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award for "extraordinary service to refugees and displaced people".[70] In 2009, Farrow was named New York magazine's "New Activist" of the year and included on its list of individuals "on the verge of changing their worlds".[71] In 2011, Harper's Bazaar listed him as an "up-and-coming politician".[19][72] In 2012, he was ranked number one in "Law and Policy" on Forbes magazine's "30 Under 30" Most Influential People.[73] He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Dominican University of California in 2012.[74] In its 2013 retrospective of men born in its 80 years of publication, Esquire magazine named him the man of the year of his birth.[75]
In February 2014, Farrow received the third annual Cronkite Award for "Excellence in Exploration and Journalism" from Reach the World, in recognition of his work since 2001, including his being a UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth in 2001.[76][77] Some media outlets noted that the award came three days after Ronan Farrow Daily began airing and suggested that the award was therefore not justified.[78][79] Farrow is the recipient of the Stonewall Community Foundation's 2016 Vision Award for his reporting on transgender issues.[80] He was also recognized by the Point Foundation in 2018, receiving the Point Courage Award for his in-depth reporting on #MeToo.[81][82] In July 2018, Farrow won the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association's Journalist of the Year award.[83] In 2019, he was listed among the 40 Under 40 List put out by Connecticut Magazine.[84] He was also named the Out100 Journalist of the Year.[85]
In May 2020, The New York Times reporter Ben Smith published an article titled "Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True?" and asserted that some of Farrow's journalism did not hold up to scrutiny.[86][87] Farrow stated in a response that he stood by his reporting.[88] In a Slate piece, Ashley Feinberg described Smith's report as an "overcorrection for resistance journalism" and opined that his approach showed "broad-mindedness, sacrificing accuracy for some vague, centrist perception of fairness."[89]
The audiobook for Farrow's book Catch and Kill, read by Farrow himself, was nominated for Best Spoken Word Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.[90]