We have the story
surrounded.

InkBlot Narratives is a National Emmy-winning St. Louis television production company developing and producing documentary series, unscripted television and brand-backed entertainment for national audiences.

2026 Daytime Emmy® Winner

A Different Breed

Winner of 3 Daytime Emmy® Awards

  • Outstanding Lifestyle Program InkBlot Narratives · Purina Films
  • Outstanding Directing Erik Becker · Aaron Bowden
  • Outstanding Editing Bryn Vytlacil · Erik Becker · Kara Ferrari
A Different Breed Amazon Prime Video
2026 National Daytime Emmy® Awards

Three National Emmys.

A Different Breed with Purina wins all three of its nominations at the 53rd Daytime Emmy® Awards.

A Different Breed poster. Winner of 3 National Daytime Emmy® Awards including Outstanding Lifestyle Program, Outstanding Directing for a Daytime Non-Studio Non-Fiction Series and Outstanding Editing for a Daytime Non-Studio Program.

Outstanding Lifestyle Program

Executive
Producers Erik Becker Aaron Bowden Angela Minges Michelle Senay

Supervising
Producer Lauren Bernstein Coordinating
Producers Kaylee Kuhlmann Kara Paar

Line
Producer June Gibson Story
Producer Josh Dabdee Talent
Producer Valerie Luther

Outstanding Directing

Directed
By Erik Becker Aaron Bowden

Outstanding Editing

Lead
Editor Bryn Vytlacil Editors Erik Becker Kara Ferrari

2026 National Daytime Emmy® Awards

InkBlot Narratives
  • Winner

    Outstanding Lifestyle Program

    A Different Breed

  • Winner

    Outstanding Directing for a Daytime Non-Studio Non-Fiction Series

    “The Season Begins”

  • Winner

    Outstanding Editing for a Daytime Non-Studio Program

    “The Season Begins”

Read the case study →
In the Press

From the nominations to the wins.

A Different Breed with Purina wins all three of its 2026 National Daytime Emmy® nominations. Selected coverage follows.

Feature St. Louis Post-Dispatch Maplewood filmmakers chase Emmys with ‘A Different Breed' A Post-Dispatch feature on the Maplewood filmmakers behind the series. October 28, 2026 Read in a new tab→ Wins feature Missouri Film Office The Results Are In! A Different Breed Season 1 Earns Three Wins at the 2026 Daytime Emmy’s. A Missouri Film Office report on the three Daytime Emmy wins. November 2, 2026 Read in a new tab→

More coverage

All press →

ORIGINAL NONFICTION

The difference between truth and fiction
is that fiction
has to make sense.

Everyone experiences the world from exactly one point of view. That's the only one they ever get. What documentary does, real documentary, is borrow the tools of cinema to arrange those individual truths into something larger. A tapestry of perspectives that, when cut together the right way, forms a true story that plays like a movie.

Platforms

  • Amazon Prime Video
  • Discovery+
  • Peacock
  • Paramount
  • WB Discovery
  • BET+
  • HGTV
  • A&E
  • YouTube
  • HBO Max
  • 01 Docuseries 2025

    A Different Breed

    Amazon Prime Video

    3× 2026 Daytime Emmy® Winner

    A landmark content-to-commerce series following elite canine competitors, and the people who love them.

  • 02 Music Documentary 2022

    The Murder Inc Story

    BET+

    The rise and fall of hip-hop's most notorious label, told from the inside.

  • 03 True Crime Documentary 2021

    Who Killed the Lyon Sisters?

    Discovery+

    A 50-year cold case. Two girls, gone. A documentary that finally delivered answers.

  • 04 Docuseries 2018

    Hangin' With Los Henrys

    YouTube

    Inside the extravagant world of a Mexican-American dynasty that broke the internet.

  • 05 Docuseries 2017

    Salvage City

    Discovery

    For one crew, Baltimore's urban wasteland is a goldmine.

  • 06 Docuseries 2020

    Listed Sisters

    HGTV

    Two sisters flipping homes and redefining what it means to build something together.

The most powerful way to get someone to believe something is true is to convince them they came to that conclusion on their own.

When a brand comes to us, we bring the same craft we bring to everything else. We don't make ads. We make stories people actually want to watch. Stories where the brand belief is self-evident, never stated out loud. Ads interrupt. Entertainment invites. People skip one and seek out the other, share it, come back for more. That is how a brand earns something advertising never could.

25+ Years in Production
100s Hours of Television
8 Major Platforms
INKBLOT ORIGINALS

What we've made.

Television and documentary production in St. Louis → In production: The Seven Ages of Olajuwon →

Subculture / Sports Documentary · Series
2026 Daytime Emmy® Winner Three Wins
  • Outstanding Lifestyle Program InkBlot Narratives · Purina Films
  • Outstanding Directing Erik Becker · Aaron Bowden
  • Outstanding Editing Bryn Vytlacil · Erik Becker · Kara Ferrari

A Different Breed

Amazon Prime Video

Purina asked whether its Incredible Dog Challenge could become the backdrop for a documentary series. InkBlot developed and produced nine episodes, collaborating with WPP on distribution to Prime Video and Peacock. The series won three national Daytime Emmy Awards, and Purina commissioned a second season.

Read the case study → Watch on Prime Video →
Feature Documentary

The Seven Ages of Olajuwon

In Production · Finishing 2026

Sixteen years in the making: one man's journey through wrongful FBI targeting, incarceration, and reclaiming his story as an actor, musician, and community advocate. Directed by Bobby Herrera.

Learn more →
Music Documentary · Series

The Murder Inc Story

BET+

The rise, fall, and redemption of hip-hop's most notorious label, told by the people who lived it.

Watch on BET+ →
True Crime · Feature Doc

Who Killed the Lyon Sisters?

Discovery+

A 50-year cold case. A documentary that finally delivered answers.

Docuseries

Hangin' With Los Henrys

YouTube

Inside the extravagant world of a wealthy Mexican-American family. The internet went wild.

Brand Entertainment · Series

AWS DeepRacer TV

Amazon Prime Video

A global machine learning competition turned into a 7-episode docuseries spanning five continents.

Watch on Prime Video →
SHOWS WE PRODUCED

Executive produced and edited by us.

Docuseries

Carvers

Syfy

Four of the world's best competitive carvers battle it out in the ultimate carving showdown.

Competition · Series

Wrench Against the Machine

Esquire Network

Old-school mechanics versus high-tech diagnostics. A battle for the soul of the garage.

Competition · Series

The Next Great Burger

Esquire Network

The search for America's next great burger and the obsessive craftspeople behind them.

Lifestyle · Series

Listed Sisters

HGTV

Two sisters transforming homes and redefining what it means to build something together.

Docuseries

Salvage City

Discovery

For Sam Coffey and his crew, Baltimore's urban wasteland is a goldmine ripe for plunder.

Travel · Series

Weekend Fix

Esquire Network

Experts hit the road to rescue weekend warriors from their most stubborn home improvement disasters.

WHAT WE DO

Two tracks.
One standard.

InkBlot Narratives is an Emmy-winning unscripted TV production company based in St. Louis, Missouri. Not a video production shop that does a little bit of everything. Not commercials. Real television, and brand-backed entertainment people actually want to watch.

Original
Entertainment

Documentary films and nonfiction series for the world's biggest streaming platforms. We develop, produce, and deliver, from the first pitch to the final deliverable.

  • Amazon Prime Video
  • Discovery+
  • Peacock
  • Paramount
  • Warner Bros. Discovery
  • BET
  • HGTV
More on our television and documentary production →

Brand
Storytelling

Entertainment that works because it was never built around messaging. We make things people want to watch. The brand belief is self-evident, never stated out loud.

  • Nestle Purina
  • Amazon Web Services
  • Johnson & Johnson
Blueprint for Content-to-Commerce See how we developed and produced A Different Breed for Purina →
THE STUDIO

St. Louis isn't
a compromise.
It's a cheat code.

A full brick-and-mortar production facility in the middle of the country, built to run at the level of any coastal shop, within striking distance of every US location and without the overhead. Editors might remote in from LA, New York, Chicago, Atlanta... our talent pool is the entire world. Our crews come from everywhere the story does. We're not based in one city. We're based in all of them.

  • 01

    In-House Post Production

    12 edit and producer stations with shared high-speed storage and real-time remote access. In-house staff who know the shows and the workflows. No waiting on outside vendors. No version control nightmares. The whole team is in the same system.

  • 02

    Real-Time Remote Access

    Our infrastructure lets the best editors in the country work from anywhere as if they're sitting in the room. Geography doesn't limit who we hire. The talent pool is the whole planet.

  • 03

    Dedicated Production Staff

    Producers, AEs, editors, post supervisors, and creative producers on staff. A core team that knows how we work, what we expect, and what it takes to deliver. No rebuilding from zero on every show.

  • 04

    A Rolodex Built Over Decades

    When a project calls for it, we reach into a network of some of the most talented freelance producers, directors, and crew in the business. The right people for the right show, every time.

INKBLOT POST

Edit from anywhere.
Earn Missouri tax credits.

Your post runs through Missouri, and the savings follow.

Remote workstations and servers

Your editors and post team work on our Mac Studios and servers from anywhere, backed by media management, AE support and post supervision from first ingest to final delivery.

Missouri tax credits made easy

Running post through InkBlot can make your production eligible for Missouri tax credits and meaningful savings. We guide the process and provide experienced CPAs and attorneys, so it stays seamless for your team.

Emmy-winning work

The team behind A Different Breed, winner of three National Daytime Emmys including Outstanding Editing.

Explore Remote Post Services →
TRUSTED BY

Platforms

  • Amazon Prime Video
  • Peacock
  • Warner Bros. Discovery
  • A&E
  • HGTV
  • Syfy
  • BET+

Brand Partners

  • Purina
  • Amazon Web Services
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • Brado
GET IN TOUCH

Have a story?
Let's talk.

You have a story

Exclusive access, a remarkable character, an untold truth. Bring it to us. We know how to develop it into something a platform can't pass on.

You want to collaborate

Filmmakers and directors who care about craft and want a production partner who'll fight for the work. Let's figure out if we're the right fit.

You're a brand

Not an ad. A show. Built by people who've done it for Amazon, AWS, and Purina, who know how to make something audiences actually want to watch.

Erik Becker
Erik Becker Co-Founder, Managing Partner, Director, Editor & Executive Producer New Business · Development · Press erik@inkblotnarratives.com
Aaron Bowden
Aaron Bowden Co-Founder, Director & Executive Producer Production aaron@inkblotnarratives.com
Kaylee Kuhlmann
Kaylee Kuhlmann Coordinating Producer General Inquiry kaylee@inkblotnarratives.com
Kara Paar
Kara Paar Coordinating Producer, Digital Asset Manager kara@inkblotnarratives.com
Bohr
Bohr Production Researcher bohr@inkblotnarratives.com
Heisenberg
Heisenberg Development Producer heisenberg@inkblotnarratives.com
REPRESENTATION
Derek Blum, Arrise Artists Agency Mark Sarsha, Brandend Media
HQ
3130 Sutton Blvd.
St. Louis (Maplewood), MO 63143
FAQ

Common questions.

What kind of production company is InkBlot Narratives?

InkBlot Narratives is a National Emmy-winning unscripted television and documentary production studio based in St. Louis, Missouri. It develops, produces and finishes original nonfiction series and brand-backed entertainment for platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Discovery+ and BET+, not corporate or commercial video.

Is InkBlot Narratives a video production company?

No. InkBlot Narratives is a television and documentary production studio, not a corporate video or commercial production company. It develops original nonfiction series and character-driven documentaries for national streaming and broadcast platforms, with its own in-house post-production facility.

Where is InkBlot Narratives located?

InkBlot Narratives is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, with its own physical production and post-production facilities in the metro area. Its crews and editors work on projects across the United States.

Has InkBlot Narratives won any awards?

Yes. InkBlot Narratives won three 2026 national Daytime Emmy Awards for A Different Breed, its documentary series with Purina: Outstanding Lifestyle Program, Outstanding Directing for a Daytime Non-Studio Non-Fiction Series and Outstanding Editing for a Daytime Non-Studio Program. The studio also won a 2021 Telly Award for Who Killed the Lyon Sisters?

What is brand-backed entertainment?

Brand-backed entertainment is original television built around real people, authentic stakes and plot-driven storytelling, funded by a brand that shares its underlying values, rather than a commercial or advertisement disguised as a show. InkBlot's A Different Breed with Purina is an example, winning national Emmy Awards in the same categories as traditional television.

What shows has InkBlot Narratives produced?

InkBlot Narratives has produced documentary series and unscripted television including A Different Breed (Amazon Prime Video, Peacock), The Murder Inc Story (BET+), Who Killed the Lyon Sisters? (Discovery+) and Wrench Against the Machine (Esquire Network), among others.