About

Mary Robertson is an Emmy Award-winning executive producer and director. In 2022, she founded Maxine Productions, a film and television production company devoted to the creation of extraordinary journalist and filmmaker-driven nonfiction work. After just three years in business Maxine has earned two Emmy nominations, a Grammy nomination, an ACE Eddie Award nomination, won the Television Critic's Award, produced the most streamed program in all of Max's history, was named a "Top 10 Emerging Indies" in RealScreen’s Global 100 List, and founder Mary Robertson, and Maxine colleague, Emma Schwartz, were named to Variety’s list of women who “Made a Big Impact on the Entertainment Industry” in 2024.

 In March of 2024, Maxine released "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV" on Investigation Discovery and Max. The four-part series, directed by Mary and Emma Schwartz, pulls back the curtain on an empire, built by creator Dan Schneider, that had an undeniable grip on popular culture. “Quiet on Set” ignited a viral online response online and has invigorated a nationwide reckoning with the dark underbelly of children’s entertainment. To date, the series has been watched by more than 30 million people across cable network ID and streamers Max and Discovery+ and became Max’s biggest streaming title ever reported in Nielsen’s Top 10 charts with 1.3 billion minutes watched. "Quiet on Set" won the Television Critics Award for "Outstanding Achievement in News and Information.” The project also appeared on numerous year-end ‘best of’ lists, received an ACE Eddie award nomination for ‘Best Edited Documentary Series’, and garnered two Creative Arts Emmy Award nominations for “Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series” and “Outstanding Picture Editing For A Nonfiction Program.”

Maxine’s documentary "JUNE," a feature on country singer-songwriter June Carter Cash from Emmy-winner Kristen Vaurio, was nominated for a Grammy for "Best Music Film," and made its world premiere at DOC NYC. The film is a New York Times Critic’s Pick and Vogue writes that "JUNE" 'rectifies a collective oversight, and presents a lovingly crafted, richly detailed rendering of a life well lived'. "JUNE" is now streaming in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Latin America, Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria on Paramount+. 

​In December of 2024, “Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story” premiered on Prime Video and was on Amazon’s top 10 list of most watched programs during its premier week. The four-part documentary series penetrates the neon-hued world of Lisa Frank Inc., a brand that defined girlhood for a generation of Americans only to seemingly disappear overnight. Through never-before-seen footage and over twenty interviews with Lisa Frank, Inc insiders, enthusiasts, and journalists, the series unravels a nostalgia-soaked, stranger-than-fiction tale that takes viewers into the hidden world that has been lurking at the heart of the company for decades. The same month, Maxine released “Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story” on Peacock. The series, a co-production with Buzzfeed Studios and directed by Peabody and Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker, Jamila Wignot, offers an astonishing investigative look into the life and career of Joe Francis, a man whose name and multi-million dollar “Girls Gone Wild” empire were inescapable in the early 2000s. The docuseries includes Francis’ first in-depth, in- person interview with a journalist in almost a decade.  

In 2025, Maxine and Rolling Stone Films will unveil a documentary series on  the remarkable rise, influence, and allegations of violent behavior and illegal activity that have trailed music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. As accounts of sexual assault, abusive behaviors, and other disturbing claims surface, the doc traces the story of this self-proclaimed Bad Boy, unraveling an apparent pattern of depravity. The project will be streaming on ID/Max later this year. 

Maxine has a pipeline full of dozens of (not yet announced) projects, including collaborations with Vox, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, Buzzfeed, and more. 

Prior to founding Maxine, Mary was the showrunner of The New York Times Presents, the anthology documentary series from the New York Times, Left/Right, FX and Hulu. Her efforts for the series include 'Framing Britney Spears' and ‘Controlling Britney Spears’, both critically-lauded documentaries that have touched-off a reckoning on Spears' treatment, misogyny, conservatorships and tabloid culture. ‘Framing Britney Spears’ broke ratings records around the world, was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards including Outstanding Nonfiction Documentary or Special and won the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information. ‘Controlling Britney Spears’ was also nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Documentary or Special and the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information. In the wake of both films, Ms. Spears’s father was suspended as conservator, and the judge terminated the conservatorship entirely.

Before her work on The New York Times Presents Mary helped create and executive produce The Weekly, whose first season garnered nine Emmy nominations and four wins. Prior to that Mary created, directed and executive produced the award-winning all-archival limited series Tricky Dick for CNN. The Wall Street Journal described Tricky Dick as a, “remarkably penetrating portrait of Richard Nixon” and named it to its year-end best of TV list. Before that she directed and produced the feature documentary Trumped which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and premiered on Showtime. And before that Mary helped develop and executive produce the inaugural season of Showtime’s doc series on the Presidential election ‘The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth’. Season one of The Circus was honored with IDA, and Television Critics Association nominations and the series is now in its seventh season. Additionally Mary directed, produced and wrote five films for Frontline on PBS, two of which received Emmy nominations.  

Mary is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. A lifelong New Yorker, she graduated from Wesleyan and today she proudly calls Brooklyn home. Mary and Maxine are represented by CAA. Maxine is proudly part of Sony Pictures Television’s nonfiction group.