Eli Murray is a data reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, one of FRONTLINE's inaugural Local Journalism Initiative partners. He's a self-taught programmer who uses code to create graphics and crunch numbers on statewide and national investigations.

In 2018, Eli had the opportunity to work on a collaboration between the Times and a local news station, 10News WTSP. The resulting investigation shed light on questionable spending by political campaigns years or even decades after the candidate left office. The story triggered the Federal Election Commission to begin reviewing dormant campaign accounts and the team that worked on the project was awarded an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award in 2019.

He also worked alongside Times reporter Tracey McManus on an investigation into clandestine real estate purchases by the Church of Scientology in 2019. Their story received a 2020 Gerald Loeb Award for Visual Storytelling.

Eli grew up in rural Illinois and received an associate degree from Sauk Valley Community College before pursuing a bachelor's in journalism at the University of Illinois. He joined the Times straight out of college in 2015.