I am a Danish journalist and director who has produced stories from around the world, mainly for broadcasters and the Danish Film Institute. My work have been featured on global news networks, at international filmfestivals, on national TV stations in more than 30 countries, and on streaming services including Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

I used to be a director at the international documentaries unit at DR, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, and before that a staff reporter in an investigative unit at Danish TV2. I was educated at the Danish newspaper Politiken and at Center For Investigative Reporting in the US, and have worked for International Media Support in South Sudan, and have been arrested by the Moroccan secret service, after doing a critical documentary.

I was born in 1977, live in Copenhagen, and have studied at The Danish School of Journalism. The Heist Against Europe received the Danish TV Award in 2019 as Best Documentary of the Year, and previously I was awarded the TV Award for The Most Innovative Feature Program. In 2021 the mobile edition of The Campaign Against the Climate was awarded a silver medal by the international Lovie award, in 2012 I received the prestigious Kristian Dahl Mindelegat award for a documentary and in 2007, I received the Steen Baadsgaard Award with the following words from the chairman of the jury Christian Nissen (former CEO of Danish Broadcasting Corporation):

"Mads Ellesøe is a journalist who can take on both the fine details and the big perspective. Both the compassionate portrait and the big revelation. A journalist who can tell a good story, as well as pursue his sources in the driest desert sand where most others would give up".