Gary Scurka is an award-winning broadcast journalist and filmmaker with over three decades of storytelling experience. Prior to his current position at WJLA, Gary has worked for CBS News in New York, Inside Edition, four local news stations as an investigative producer, and was a contract producer and war correspondent for National Geographic Explorer. While in Afghanistan covering a humanitarian aid effort, Gary was wounded by a mortar round during a firefight between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban. He later became an embedded journalist for National Geographic during the Iraq war where he produced and narrated "Baghdad Bound: Devil Dog Diaries."Gary has received over 100 broadcast journalism awards, including the DuPont Columbia Silver Baton, the George Polk Award, two Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards, and 20 local news Emmys.Gary has always been an avid outdoors man. It was when he first began hiking to the highest point in each state with his daughter Mackenzie that Gary realized their favorite hobby could be the subject of a film. "Highpointers," a one-hour documentary, chronicles a summit attempt of Gannett Peak in Wyoming while encouraging appreciation of national parks and wilderness areas. From August, 2017 through 2019 the documentary ran on PBS stations across the country and has garnered numerous awards on the film festival circuit.
Listed skills include Investigative Reporting, Documentary Film Making, Mountain Climbing, Physical Fitness, and 10 others.