INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER & HELICOPTER PHOTOJOURNALIST
JULIA DENG
Julia Deng is an all-platform, all-terrain reporter adept at wearing numerous hats, navigating ambiguity with grace and troubleshooting under intense deadline pressure. She has more than a decade of experience writing, shooting and editing stories for television, radio, print and digital outlets. Julia has walked through tear gas to document social justice protests, waded through oil patch sludge to secure exclusives and braved dizzying heights to better visualize the impacts of extreme weather. Her investigative reports have led to swift corrective action at public agencies, school districts, companies and a public utility.
As a helicopter reporter and photographer for NBC4 Los Angeles, Julia simultaneously shoots and narrates live coverage for newscasts and web streams. She routes morning drivers around traffic trouble, follows adrenaline-fueled police pursuits and acts as an eye in the sky over developing scenes. Her footage and insights from NewsChopper 4 have bolstered NBC4's team coverage of fast-spreading wildfires, campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war and raucous celebrations after the Dodgers' World Series win.
During her time at WISH-TV in Indianapolis, Julia led coverage of regional and national stories for Nexstar stations, spotlighting humanity and hope in the wake of deadly tornadoes and delivering hours of live field reports following the Dayton mass shooting in 2019. As an investigative reporter for WISH-TV's I-Team, Julia tracked the rise of violent extremist groups, identified gaps in eviction protection and uncovered an issue in Indiana's unemployment insurance system that caused payment delays for more than 20,000 people.
Julia is proudest of her stories that have opened hearts and minds, and righted wrongs. After she aired a story about a kindergarten student's "lunch shaming" ordeal in central Indiana, school administrators suspended the district's cold sandwich policy. Her reporting in Indianapolis also prompted a public utility to acknowledge and address a mistake that left a local couple without running water for 20 months.
During her time at KWES-TV in Texas, Julia spent months researching local hospital records and aired a series of stories about alleged medication errors at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, the region's only full-service hospital. She tracked down and interviewed whistleblowers who claimed they were fired for speaking out about dosage mistakes that could have killed patients, then tracked down and spoke with those patients about how they felt they were silenced.
Julia is at home in newsrooms and courtrooms. In 2015, her coverage of a weekslong murder trial in Sierra Blanca caught the attention of National Geographic producers. The case became the centerpiece of the network's "Badlands" series. She made case developments come alive for viewers by introducing new characters daily: relatives watching with bated breath, a courtroom artist sketching the unfolding drama and attorneys struggling to connect with jurors. She reported from the front lines of numerous legal battles in Texas, including a Union Pacific negligence case stemming from a deadly parade accident.
Julia credits her internships with shaping her news philosophy and storytelling techniques. She worked closely with NBC News producers and correspondents during college, contributing to NBC Nightly News, TODAY Show, Dateline NBC, NBCNews.com and NBC Latino stories. She received Assistant Producer credit for Dateline NBC's 2012 season premiere, "The Plot Thickens." At CBS Los Angeles, she field produced DWP and Caltrans investigations for reporter David Goldstein, conducting dusk-to-dawn stakeouts and shooting footage on hidden cameras to expose corruption.
Julia was awarded the Leslie Miller Scholarship during college for her "commitment to telling stories that make a positive and meaningful difference." She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California, where she double-majored in journalism and political science. She was executive producer of USC's award-winning Annenberg TV News. Fight on!
Julia hung up her broadcaster hat (briefly!) and joined the Los Angeles County Business Federation in 2021 to lead a communications operation serving hundreds of regional members representing 420,000 employers with 5 million employees.
The federation, known as "BizFed," unites more than 150 companies and 240 business associations to advocate for jobs and the economy. Members include chambers of commerce, business improvement districts, economic development organizations, trade associations and minority business groups.
As communications director for BizFed, Julia elevated business voices by amplifying everyday affordability concerns with a multiplatform, multilingual approach. She sought out relatable subjects within and beyond BizFed's sprawling network of members and secured coverage of their stories in dozens of local, national and international news outlets.
Op-eds and letters to editors penned by Julia for BizFed leaders from various sectors have been published by CalMatters, Capitol Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News and The Wall Street Journal.
Julia creates attention-grabbing content for all screens in ever-evolving formats. She produced Instagram Reels featuring interviews with small business owners ahead of a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors vote on a minimum wage hike opposed by BizFed.
These social videos (shot and edited by Julia using only her iPhone) helped humanize the business community's position on the hot-button issue. Los Angeles Daily News pointed to BizFed's advocacy as a reason for the board's decision to pull the proposal.
