Friday, Oct. 6, 8:30-10am CT
Location: Blake campus, Dining Commons
 

The reunion edition of our popular Breakfast at Blake speaker series featured our 2023 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year Andrij Parekh '90. This year’s Jenny Stephens Hagen Spirit Award recipients, El Crosby Winston '60 and Fred Winston '55, were also recognized.

Andrij Parekh '90 lives and works in New York City, shooting features, television and commercials. In 2004, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Indie Film" and was included as one of Variety's "Ten Cinematographers to Watch." He is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).

On September 20, 2020, at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, he was announced as the winner of that year's Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for his work directing “Hunting”, an episode of that year's Outstanding Drama Series winner, "Succession." He was the cinematographer on three "Succession" episodes, developing the show's visual style, and has directed six episodes in the series. He is currently working in London directing “House of the Dragon” for HBO.

Parekh joined Blake in seventh grade. In Upper School, he played varsity soccer, sang for the Glee Club and was active on the Quiz Bowl team and on the yearbook committee.

After earning a bachelor's degree in sociology/anthropology and a minor in media studies from Carleton College, he went on to study directing and cinematography at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and then cinematography at FAMU film school in Prague. While at NYU, he was nominated for the 1998 Eastman Excellence in Cinematography award. In 2001, he won an honorable mention from the American Society of Cinematographers in the Heritage Award category.