Ben Proudfoot

Canadian director and filmmaker

Born: October 29, 1990

Famous Persons

Who is Ben Proudfoot?

Ben Proudfoot (born October 29, 1990) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and entrepreneur. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Proudfoot is of Scottish and Dutch heritage. He was born to an attorney father and sociologist mother. Later, he moved to Los Angeles as an undeclared USC student and would eventually attend film school as a Critical Studies student at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Proudfoot is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Breakwater Studios, a filmmaking company specializing in short documentaries. His maternal grandmother was a member of the Dutch resistance. The film gained popularity on Vimeo and became a Vimeo Staff Pick.

Historical significance

He has won two Academy Awards, the first ever awarded to The New York Times and the LA Times. As a teenager, he excelled as a sleight-of-hand magician, winning several Canadian and international titles in magic competitions and was the first international member of The Magic Castle Junior Program in Los Angeles. In 2011, he made his first short documentary for a class project, ink&paper, a nine-minute film about side-by-side letterpress and paper shops fighting to survive in Downtown LA.

Sources and further reading

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Wikipedia source

Cite this page

MLA

“Ben Proudfoot.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/ben-proudfoot/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2026.

APA

Ben Proudfoot. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 29, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/ben-proudfoot/

Chicago

“Ben Proudfoot.” thisDay. Accessed October 29, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/ben-proudfoot/.

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