Olive Talley brings a blend of small town American values and big city sophistication to everything she does. She grew up on a farm in Texas but built her career in some of the nation’s largest cities (New York, Houston, Dallas, Boston and Austin.)

Olive is an award-winning veteran of print, television and online media -- who has earned a reputation for toughness, fairness and compassion in her work.

While she’s interviewed and worked with high profile people and well-known companies, Olive believes that character and integrity matter the most in telling a story, whether the focus is a billion-dollar firm or a farmer struggling to make ends meet in rural America.

Olive’s peers and clients describe her as a smart, strategic thinker; a good listener; a compelling writer, and a passionate and tenacious person with a strong work ethic. The breadth of her work speaks for itself – and you can trust her to bring all of those qualities and more to your project.

Olive’s work

Olive is an award-winning producer, writer, reporter and filmmaker.

Olive’s latest film, ALL RISE For the Good of the Children, premiered at the 2019 USA Film Festival in Dallas and later was named a finalist for a Lone Star EMMY. The 75-minute documentary profiles a maverick judge in East Texas and two families whose lives were transformed by Judge Carole Clark’s trauma-informed approach to healing families in the Texas child welfare system. allriseforchildren.com

Olive’s abilities as a storyteller are rooted in a stellar journalism career that spanned radio, UPI wire service, newspapers (The Houston Post, The Houston Chronicle and The Dallas Morning News), network television and online media. Olive worked in New York as a producer at primetime news magazine shows Dateline NBC and ABC’s Prime Time Live! with high-profile correspondents, including Hoda Kotb, Diane Sawyer, Stone Phillips, Katie Couric, Dennis Murphy, and Rob Stafford.

As a journalist, Olive was best known for her investigative reporting, which was recognized with the industry’s top honors. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a two-time finalist for a national EMMY and winner of a George Polk Award, a National Headliner, two Texas Headliner Awards, and a DuPont-Columbia Award as part of a team at NBC for Hurricane Katrina coverage, among others.

More recently, she has focused her passion on raising awareness about the impact of trauma on children, particularly at-risk youth. She has worked extensively with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University to conceptualize and create over 60 hours of video training materials that are utilized by KPICD, other non-profits and governmental agencies throughout the US and more than 20 countries worldwide.

In the corporate arena, Olive has solid experience managing and leading teams of creatives to deliver compelling video content for informational and inspirational campaigns, certified e-training and online content.

Education

  • Nieman Fellowship, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
  • Bachelor of Journalism, University of Texas, Austin, Texas

Awards/ Honors

  • Pulitzer Prize, Finalist, Investigative Reporting (The Dallas Morning News)
  • Alfred I. DuPont Columbia Award (NBC team coverage of Hurricane Katrina)
  • Emmy Award, two-time finalist (Dateline NBC, ABC News/Primetime Live!)
  • Lone Star Emmy, Finalist, Documentary
  • National Headliner Awards, TV News Documentary (Dateline NBC)
  • George Polk Award, Education Reporting (The Dallas Morning News)
  • Headliners Club of Austin, Investigative Reporter of the Year (The Dallas Morning News)
  • Associated Press Managing Editors Award (writing, FOIA and community service awards)
  • Dallas Press Club (five-time winner)
  • Houston Press Club (two-time winner)
  • Freddie Award, International Health and Medical Media
  • Matrix Award, Women in Communications
  • Cine Golden Eagle Award
  • Columbus Film Festival, honorable mention
  • GE Ovation Award for “Above and Beyond Effort”
  • Telly Awards (for online training and educational videos at CiNet and Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at TCU)
    See all Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development at TCU videos here.