Biography
National Geographic Explorer and storyteller Tara Roberts embarked on a life-changing journey alongside a team of primarily Black scuba divers in search of slave shipwrecks. Roberts documented her travels and the stories of the divers, historians, archaeologists and communities she met along the way for the National Geographic Society-funded podcast series, Into the Depths. The critically-acclaimed series received close to half a million downloads and was listed on several “best of” lists, including those for Essence magazine and Spotify. Roberts became the first Black female explorer to grace the cover of the National Geographic magazine, where her story reached over 26 million people. Most recently, she was named the 2022 Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year, becoming the first Black American to ever receive the honor. Her work has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Nightline, PBS, the Tamron Hall Show, BET and NPR, to name a few.
Roberts has also served as a Fellow for MIT’s Open Documentary Lab; and she worked as an editor for CosmoGirl, Essence, AOL, EBONY and Heart & Soul.