top of page
Biography by Design
Every person and organization has a story.
Let us help you tell yours.
Meet Our Team
KATE BUFORD
Founding partner KATE BUFORD is the Executive Producer of a forthcoming documentary on Jim Thorpe, a joint venture from Springhill Company, LeBron James’ production company, and The History Channel. It is based on her award-winning and New York Times Editors’ Choice biography Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe (Knopf, 2010). She also wrote the New York Times Editors’ Choice best-seller Burt Lancaster: An American Life (Knopf, 2000), the story of one of Hollywood’s greatest stars and indie producer. A Californian come east, Kate earned an MS in information/library science at Columbia University, worked as a law librarian on Wall Street (Cravath; Davis Polk; Willkie Farr), a vp at the global corporate communications firm of FSG Global, a commentator for NPR’s Morning Edition and APM’s Marketplace, and contributor to many publications, television shows, and documentaries. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, and serves on the board of the Blue Ridge United Nations Association of USA. (photo: Robert Curtis)
ABIGAIL SANTAMARIA
Abigail Santamaria is a 2024-2025 Fellow at the New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She is the author of Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C.S. Lewis (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), and is currently at work on I Am Meg: The Life of Madeleine L’Engle, forthcoming from Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Past awards include a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar grant (2022), a Sustainable Arts Foundation award (2021), and a Leon Levy Center for Biography fellowship (2019). In 2022, Abby was a finalist for a CINTAS Foundation Award in Creative Writing, for writers of Cuban heritage. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and Literary Hub, among other publications. Abby earned a MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. Follow her on Instagram: @asantamariawriter
HUMPHREY KEENLYSIDE
London associate Humphrey Keenlyside has been writing nonfiction for 25 years, and probably longer if you count his time before that as a journalist and as a lawyer. He takes the view that everyone has an interesting story to tell. Most of his writing is now done for law firms, and he has developed a particular skill for interviewing lawyers and capturing in words the individual culture and differentiating facets of law firms. He has written personality profiles on websites, for internal purposes and for alumni publications. More substantially, he is the author of five law firm histories – two for Allen & Overy (Allen & Overy: The Firm; and A&O at 75), for Linklaters (Passing the Flame), for Watson, Farley & Williams (The Spirit of Enterprise) and for White & Case (1901-2016: the First 100 Years & Beyond). A sixth one will soon be published.
He has also written two family biographies. The first was the life story of his father-in-law, a diplomat who travelled the world and whose work was dominated by the Cold War. The second was of the mother of his former boss, who told the story of her life and that of her husband through the whole of the 20th century.
When not penning words, Humphrey is often to be found on the sports field or taking exercise in some form. He has passed on the importance of the written word – and his love of music – to his two sons.
He has also written two family biographies. The first was the life story of his father-in-law, a diplomat who travelled the world and whose work was dominated by the Cold War. The second was of the mother of his former boss, who told the story of her life and that of her husband through the whole of the 20th century.
When not penning words, Humphrey is often to be found on the sports field or taking exercise in some form. He has passed on the importance of the written word – and his love of music – to his two sons.
bottom of page