Marika Gerrard is an American journalist, aerial videographer, and co-founder of the Los Angeles News Service, born on December 10, 1955, in Los Angeles, California.
She co-produced some of the most consequential news footage in American television history, including the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 1994 OJ Simpson Bronco chase.
Her career and personal life became the subject of the 2020 documentary Whirlybird.
Who is Marika Gerrard?
Marika Gerrard is a retired American journalist and photographer who co-founded Los Angeles News Service in 1983 alongside her then-husband Zoey Tur, then known as Bob Tur. Together, they pioneered 24-hour helicopter newsgathering in Los Angeles.
Her work helped reshape how television stations covered breaking news. LANS was the first company to use an AStar helicopter for major city news coverage and the first to broadcast a high-speed police chase on live television.
Gerrard also wrote for the Los Angeles Times earlier in her career, covering major investigative stories before moving into aerial journalism. She spent seventeen years as an aerial videographer, capturing events that became defining images of American history.
Since retiring from active reporting, she has managed and licensed the Los Angeles News Service archive. The archive holds over 10,000 videotapes of historic news footage, which she continues to administer for use by documentary filmmakers and media organizations.
Early Life of Marika Gerrard
Gerrard grew up in Los Angeles, California, in 1955. By her own account, she was naturally introverted as a child and preferred spending time in libraries over social settings.
From an early age, she developed a strong interest in nature and photography. That combination of curiosity and visual thinking would later prove central to her career as a news videographer.
Her academic performance was strong, and she went on to complete advanced studies at one of California’s most competitive public universities.
The foundation she built through both her education and her early love of photography set the direction for everything that followed.
Marika Gerrard Age
Marika Gerrard is 70 years old as of 2026, born on December 10, 1955. Her zodiac sign is Sagittarius.
She built and ran one of the most significant independent news operations in Los Angeles television history before retiring.
Gerrard appeared in the documentary Whirlybird in 2020, offering candid reflections on her career and the events she covered.
Marika Gerrard Ethnicity and Nationality
Gerrard is American by nationality, born and raised in Los Angeles. She is of white ethnic background, as noted across multiple published profiles of her career.
Her family background is not extensively detailed in public sources. Christianity is cited as her faith.
Marika Gerrard Education
Gerrard attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she completed both a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Philosophy. She was one of the top students in her class, which helped her gain admission to UCLA Law.
UCLA’s strong liberal arts and law programs gave her both the analytical training and the investigative instincts she later applied in the field.
Her philosophical education likely shaped how she thought about the ethics of documentation and the weight of the images she captured.
Her academic background stands out in a field where many television journalists enter without postgraduate study. That foundation helped her approach even dangerous breaking news situations with methodical focus.
Marika Gerrard Career
Early Career at the Los Angeles Times
Gerrard began her career as a writer and reporter for the Los Angeles Times. While there, she covered demanding investigative stories, including the Laurel Canyon Murders and the Signal Hill Police Brutality investigation.
Both stories required persistence and close sourcing. The Signal Hill case involved the death of a Black college student in a Los Angeles suburb and raised serious questions about police conduct.
Her ability to report on complex, sensitive subjects at the Times gave her credibility before she ever picked up a camera from the air. That time at the paper grounded her journalism in accountability reporting.
Founding Los Angeles News Service
In 1983, Gerrard and Zoey Tur co-founded Los Angeles News Service. The company operated as a freelance news organization, supplying footage to television stations across the city and beyond.
LANS was an early pioneer of the aerial news model. The company used an AStar helicopter to hover above breaking events and transmit footage directly to newsrooms, giving stations live coverage they could not capture themselves.
Gerrard served as the aerial videographer while Tur piloted the helicopter. For seventeen years, she shot news footage from the air, covering wildfires, earthquakes, live pursuits, and civil unrest across Los Angeles.
LANS built content agreements with multiple major outlets, including KNX, KCOP, and KCBS-TV. Those relationships made the service indispensable to local news coverage in one of the most media-intensive cities in the world.
The 1992 Riots and the OJ Simpson Chase
Two pieces of footage defined the legacy of Gerrard and LANS for American television. The first came on April 29, 1992, when riots erupted across Los Angeles following the acquittal of officers in the Rodney King case.
Gerrard filmed the attack on Reginald Denny from the LANS helicopter as Denny was pulled from his truck and beaten at the intersection of Florence and Normandie. The footage aired live on national television and became one of the most recognized images of the riots.
In a 2021 interview with TheWrap for the Whirlybird documentary, Gerrard recalled her mindset while filming: she was focused on keeping the image in focus and securing the shot, thinking of it as a news story. It was only later, watching it back on screen, that the full weight of what she had filmed hit her. She said she could not watch that video for a long time afterward.
Two years later, in June 1994, LANS captured another historic moment. Gerrard and Tur were the first crew to locate OJ Simpson’s white Ford Bronco during his low-speed freeway chase, and their footage ran live on television stations nationwide. The broadcast drew one of the largest television audiences for a news event in that era.
LANS later sued multiple television networks for copyright infringement after they used the 1992 riot footage without authorization. At least one of those lawsuits succeeded, and the final case settled in 2004.
Current Ventures and the Whirlybird Documentary
Gerrard retired from active reporting and now manages the Los Angeles News Service archive. The collection spans over 10,000 tapes of historic Los Angeles news footage, which she licenses to documentary filmmakers and media organizations.
In 2020, her story reached a new audience through the documentary Whirlybird, directed by Matt Yoka. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020. Gerrard appeared in the documentary as herself, reflecting on her career, her marriage to Zoey Tur, and the footage that made their company famous.
Whirlybird received strong critical reception, earning an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and distribution through A&E Indie Films and Apple TV+. Her daughter Katy Tur also appeared in the documentary, offering her perspective on growing up in the household built around helicopter journalism.
Marika Gerrard Awards and Recognition
Gerrard received several major industry awards over the course of her career. She earned three Television News Emmy Awards for her work at LANS, among the highest distinctions in broadcast journalism.
She also received two Edward R. Murrow Awards. The first recognized her reporting on the Loma Prieta Earthquake. A second Murrow Award honored her coverage of Jewish Americans leaving their homes.
The Edward R. Murrow Awards, presented by the Radio Television Digital News Association since 1971, recognize excellence in broadcast and digital journalism. They rank among the most prestigious honors in American news.
Along with the Emmys and Murrow Awards, Gerrard received the Associated Press National Breaking News Award and the National Press Photographers Association Humanitarian Award. Together, those recognitions reflect both the quality and the civic importance of the work she produced.
Marika Gerrard Ex-Husband Zoey Tur
Gerrard and Zoey Tur, then known as Bob Tur, first met in 1978 at the Westwood Bruin Theatre in Los Angeles. Their early dates were unconventional. Gerrard later recalled in Whirlybird interviews that their outings were not dinners or movies but rather car crashes, fires, and news events.
Their relationship deepened into both a romantic partnership and a professional one. The two founded LANS together in 1983 and spent nearly two decades working side by side in the same helicopter.
Gerrard and Tur married in 1980. Their 23-year marriage ended in divorce in 2003. Following the divorce, Tur came out publicly as transgender in 2013, changing her name to Hanna Zoey Tur.
Since the divorce, Gerrard has remained single and has kept her personal life largely out of public view. She is not known to be in a relationship as of 2026.
Marika Gerrard Children
Gerrard and Zoey Tur have two children. Their daughter, Katy Tur, was born on October 26, 1983. She grew up in a household where news helicopters, police scanners, and breaking events were simply part of daily life.
Katy Tur went on to become one of the best-known journalists in American television, working as an anchor and correspondent for MSNBC. She has also written books about her career and her family’s complex history.
Their son, James Tur, chose a career in medicine and works as a physician. He has maintained a private life and rarely appears in media.
Both children appeared in the 2020 documentary Whirlybird, offering their own reflections on growing up with parents who spent years flying over some of Los Angeles’ most dangerous and historic events.
Marika Gerrard Net Worth
Marika Gerrard’s estimated net worth is $1 million as of 2026. Her wealth comes primarily from her long career as a journalist and aerial videographer, along with her ongoing role managing the LANS archive.
The Los Angeles News Service archive, which Gerrard currently administers, holds over 10,000 tapes of historic Los Angeles news footage. Licensing that footage to documentary makers and media organizations continues to generate income for her.
Her work during the 1992 riots and the OJ Simpson chase produced footage that has appeared in countless documentaries, news retrospectives, and archival programs over the past three decades. Each licensed use of that material contributes to the archive’s ongoing commercial value.
Marika Gerrard Social Media
Marika Gerrard maintains a professional presence on LinkedIn, where she is listed as affiliated with Los Angeles News Service and based in Marina del Rey, California. She does not maintain public Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok accounts.
Her public profile remains largely professional rather than personal. She has appeared in interviews connected to Whirlybird and related media coverage, but she does not actively seek public attention.
The Bottom Line
Marika Gerrard co-produced the most widely seen aerial news footage of the 1990s, including the live broadcast of the Reginald Denny attack on April 29, 1992, and the first camera crew to locate OJ Simpson’s Bronco during the 1994 freeway chase.
She and Zoey Tur co-founded Los Angeles News Service in 1983 and built it into one of the most influential freelance news operations in American television history. Their company earned three Television News Emmy Awards and two Edward R. Murrow Awards.
Today, Gerrard manages the LANS archive from Marina del Rey, licensing historic footage to media organizations. We hope you enjoyed reading about Marika. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!