Barbara Celis is a Spanish freelance reporter, filmmaker and communications expert currently living in Rome.
A journalist with more than two decades of international experience, she has worked as a freelance correspondent in New York, London, Taipei, and Rome. Throughout her career, she has published regularly in leading media outlets such as El País, CTXT, El Confidencial, Rolling Stone, LA Weekly and many others, covering politics, culture, and human rights. Her work combines narrative journalism with in-depth investigation.
Parallel to her reporting, she has developed a creative career as a documentary filmmaker and journalism lecturer, earning recognition with five international journalism awards such as the SIP–IAPA Excellence in Journalism 2015 as well as fellowships from institutions including Fundación Gabo 2023 and USC Annenbert/Getty Arts 2009. In recent years, she specialised in climate change and development working for FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP), leading communication strategies and authoring three FAO books on climate, water, and nutrition.
Barbara holds two MAs in Journalism and a Postgraduate Certificate in Climate Change and Development from SOAS. She teaches at Escuela de Periodismo El País in Madrid.
