Allya Davidson

September, 2021: Allya Davidson is no longer with the company.

Allya Davidson is Senior Producer of W5, Canada’s most-watched documentary series. She joined the program in 2016 as a producer, and assumed her current role in 2021.

A highly versatile producer with expertise across genres, including true crime, health, government, and criminal justice stories, Davidson has been recognized with Emmy and Canadian Screen Awards as an investigative journalist and producer.

Her W5 investigations into serial killer Bruce McArthur and the men he murdered, “The Missing” and “Suspect Zero”, were nominated for a multitude of industry awards. Her travelogue on the little-known French overseas territory Saint-Pierre et Miquelon is one of W5’s most-watched episodes. She also brought to light the silent epidemic of substance abuse among doctors and nurses in “Hospital Secrets.” 

Davidson’s Canadian Screen Award-winning VICE Canada series CANADA’S WATERLESS COMMUNITIES brought the water crisis on Indigenous reserves to a national audience and led to campaign promises during the 2015 Canadian federal election. Her series on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, SEARCHERS, shed light on an ongoing crisis. 

Davidson has worked for a multitude of trusted international media organizations, including Clover Films UK, Channel 4 (UK), ZDF (Germany), Four Corners (Australia), PBS Frontline, VICE News, and CBC.

Known for her ability to tell stories and secure interviews that no one else can, Davidson has handled delicate and deeply personal stories with care in locations including Europe, Qatar, the High Arctic, and Kenya. Davidson’s work has been recognized with a multitude of industry honours, including a Canadian Online Publishing Award for her online companion piece to her expansive W5 arctic documentary “North by Northwest” (2017); a 2021 Canadian Screen Award for Best News or Information Program for her W5 investigation into online romance fraud, “The Invisible Man”; two 2013 News and Documentary Emmy Awards for PBS Frontline documentaries “Opium Brides” and “Battle for Syria”; as well as  awards from RTDNA Canada, the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards, and the Yorkton Film Festival, among others.

Fluent in English and French, Davidson is currently learning Arabic. She is a juror for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television; a founding Steering Committee member of Bell Media’s Diversity and Inclusion Think Tank (DAITT); and a career mentor with Women’s Health in Women’s Hands, which provides leadership and practical skills to racialized women. 

Davidson holds a Master’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism from City, University of London, and an honours BA in English and World Religions from McGill University. During her time at McGill, she also studied film at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Follow Allya Davidson on Twitter: @AllyaDavidson