Three of the most popular documentaries on Netflix in the past seven weeks have one thing in common: they were directed by Skye Borgman.
Borgman, best known for Netflix’s 2017 true crime documentary Abducted In Plain Sight, has signed a three-year deal with Netflix to produce and distribute documentaries. In 2024, her documentary “American Murder: Laci Peterson” debuted on the platform. This was followed by three documentaries in 2025: “Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser,” “Unknown Number: The High School Catfish” and “My Father, the BTK Killer.”
“These projects were actually much more extensive than they appeared,” Borgman says. “I started working on ‘About My Father’ two years ago, before I started working on ‘Unknown Number’ and ‘The Reality of The Biggest Loser.’
Borgman’s films struck a chord with viewers, whether they focused on murder, catfishing, or the ethics of reality television.
The director believes that, in part, it is the confusion that attracts her to all projects.
“Even if a story like that confuses me, I’m immediately intrigued because I want to understand the why, how, or reasoning behind it,” says Borgman. “And I don’t know if you necessarily need to find the reasons for those things or if you know you can find the reasons for them. I know that a lot of times you can’t find the exact reasons for some things, but stories that are confusing are definitely fascinating.”
Borgman’s three-part documentary series “Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser,” an inside look at the making of the competition show that ran for 18 seasons, was released on August 15th. Two weeks later, on August 29, “Unknown Number,” about Kendra Licari, a mother who sends endless abusive text messages to her teenage daughter and her boyfriend, entered the top 10 of the platform’s global film chart. It quickly became water cooler fodder within the first week.
The overnight success of “Unknown Number” and the huge amount of attention it received on social media surprised Bormugan.
“I knew[the doctor]would empathize, because how could he not?” mother sends daughter awful text message. ” Borgman says. “But I didn’t realize how big a fire it would light under people.”
Licari, who participated in “Unknown Number,” has been the subject of endless jokes and hundreds of memes online. It is unknown whether Licari regrets becoming a member of the Dr.
“She hasn’t contacted me, which is a big deal,” Borgman said.
On October 10th, Netflix released the director’s latest documentary, “My Father, the BTK Killer.” After gruesomely murdering 10 people between 1974 and 1991, Dennis Rader/BTK (Blind, Torture, Kill) murderer, president of a modest Kansas-based church congregation and former Cub Scout leader, was arrested by authorities during a lunch break in 2005.
Several documentaries have been made about Radar, but Borgman’s film examines the crime through a new lens: Radar’s daughter Kelly Lawson. The 94-minute film includes interviews with investigators who helped uncover BTK’s identity, as well as Lawson’s personal reflections on his relationship with his father before and after his arrest and conviction.
Borgman decided to create “My Father, BTK Killer” after reading Kelly Lawson’s 2019 book, “Daughter of a Serial Killer: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming.”
“I thought it was a documentary about what it’s like to be the daughter of a serial killer. This is something I’ve never seen before.”
In the doc, Lawson combs through family photos of her, her siblings, and parents at various celebrations and holidays. This group of four seems like a typical unassuming family of four. Then there’s a photo of Lawson’s station wagon decorated for a high school event. The same station wagon Radar used to transport one of his dead victims.
“He gave me a station wagon to drive in high school,” Lawson said in the document.
Since writing “A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming,” Lawson has been vocal about her response to her father’s brutal murder. Raider’s actions not only caused severe trauma, but also forced Rawon to reevaluate his childhood memories. This self-reflection led her to question the validity of her past experiences, which made her healing process difficult.
“I think part of Kelly’s journey and part of her healing is speaking publicly,” Borgman says. “She also gets a lot of backlash for speaking publicly, but I think that’s part of who she is as a person and part of what really drives her forward. So this book was kind of the first step. I think she felt like she needed to make the documentary and take the next step and be more public about what she was going through.”
