--- name: "Ava Berkofsky" canonical: "https://film.one/person/ava-berkofsky" roles: ["Cinematographer","Director"] reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T03:23:32.206418+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ava Berkofsky Cinematographer and director. Born in Wales, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Cinematographer, Director ## Fi1m on Ava Berkofsky > A cinematographer first and a director second, Ava Berkofsky lights dark skin so that it keeps its warmth and detail where most television lets it fall into shadow. On *Insecure* that changed how the show looked; as a director she is still largely untested. Watch a night scene in *Insecure*: a car interior lit blue, orange streetlight outside the window, and two faces that are fully readable, every plane of the cheek separate from the dark behind it. That is Ava Berkofsky's work, and it sounds like the least a camera should do. On television it is rarer than it should be. The frame is often set slightly off as well: the character pushed to one side of the picture with a lot of air above the head, so the composition never quite sits still. She began in stills photography and moved to cinematography around 2007. *Insecure* is the job that made her name. Melina Matsoukas directed the opening episode and set the look; Berkofsky joined as director of photography for the second season in 2017 and stayed to the end in 2021, and between them they gave a half-hour comedy the colour and depth usually reserved for drama. Feature work ran alongside: *Free in Deed* (2016), *Share* (2019), *The Sky Is Everywhere* (2022), *The Front Room* (2024) and *One of Them Days* (2025). She directed two episodes of *Insecure* in 2020 and 2021, then episodes of *Bel-Air* (2022) and further television comedy in 2023. The lighting is not a filter and not a trick. Film school did not teach her how to light people who were not white, so she worked it out herself, with LED panels, polarisers and exposure set for the actors she was actually shooting. We noticed it within minutes of *Insecure* and were a little ashamed at how startled we were: Issa and Molly in a car at night, skin catching the streetlight and holding it, looked like people in a film rather than people in a sitcom, and we realised how seldom we had seen that on television. The off-centre framing is a sharper taste. On *Insecure* it suits two women who never feel quite settled in their own lives; in a different show it could become a mannerism. What we cannot yet say is what kind of director she is. Two episodes of *Insecure* and a handful of hours of television since are an apprenticeship, and the reputation rests on the camera. Lighting and framing are what she is known for, and they are not what makes or breaks a director; that is actors and scripts. Her strength is proven. The question is what she does on a set where the lighting is someone else's job. ## Biography Ava Berkofsky is an American cinematographer and director. Born in Wales, they were raised in California. They hold a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York and an MFA in cinematography from the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles. Berkofsky served as principal cinematographer on the HBO series *Insecure* for seasons two through five (2017–2021), collaborating on its visual style, and directed two episodes of the series. They received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour) for their work on the show. Other credits as director of photography include the films *Share* (2019), *The Sky Is Everywhere* (2022), *The Front Room* (2024) and *One of Them Days* (2025), as well as episodes of *Vida* and *Woke*. Berkofsky is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Insecure* (2016), Fi1m 81, Cinematography, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/insecure.md) ## Also known for - *One of Them Days* (2025), Director of Photography - *The Front Room* (2024), Director of Photography - *The Sky Is Everywhere* (2022), Director of Photography - *Share* (2019), Director of Photography - *Woke* (2020), Director of Photography --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ava-berkofsky