--- name: "Dana Gonzales" canonical: "https://film.one/person/dana-gonzales" fi1m_id: "dana-gonzales" imdb_id: "nm0327466" tmdb_id: 963861 wikidata_id: "Q5214733" roles: ["Director","Producer"] born: "18 November 1963" reviewed_on_fi1m: 6 average_fi1m_score: 78 average_as: "director" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-20T07:16:32.820723+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." --- # Dana Gonzales ## Identity Dana Gonzales - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/dana-gonzales - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** dana-gonzales - **IMDb ID:** nm0327466 - **TMDB ID:** 963861 - **Wikidata ID:** Q5214733 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Gonzales, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5214733, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0327466/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/963861 Director and producer. Born 18 November 1963 in Los Angeles. ## Details - **Work:** Director, Producer - **Born:** 18 November 1963, Los Angeles - **Active:** 2004–present - **Also known as:** 다나 곤잘레스 - **Titles on Fi1m:** 6: 4 directing, 2 crew - **Frequently works with:** [Noah Hawley](https://film.one/person/noah-hawley.md), [Bob DeLaurentis](https://film.one/person/bob-delaurentis.md), [Dearbhla Walsh](https://film.one/person/dearbhla-walsh.md), [John Cameron](https://film.one/person/john-cameron-1482.md), [Keith Gordon](https://film.one/person/keith-gordon.md), [Michael Uppendahl](https://film.one/person/michael-uppendahl.md), [Mike Barker](https://film.one/person/mike-barker.md), [Regis Kimble](https://film.one/person/regis-kimble.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as director, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 64 (2), 2010s 78 (3), 2020s 76 (1) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 78 to 82 across 4 titles - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Genres:** Drama 4, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 3, Action & Adventure 2, Crime 1 - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Gonzales, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5214733, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0327466/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/963861 ## Streaming the US now - **Disney+:** [*Legion*](https://film.one/tv/legion.md) (77), [*Alien: Earth*](https://film.one/tv/alien-earth.md) (76), [*The Handmaid's Tale*](https://film.one/tv/the-handmaids-tale.md) (75) - **Hulu:** [*Fargo*](https://film.one/tv/fargo-2014.md) (82) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Dana Gonzales > A cinematographer first and a director second, Dana Gonzales makes television that is dark, side-lit and looks like one thing from the first episode to the last, which is the point. We rate the look; a directing style of his own has yet to show itself. Watch a corridor in *Alien: Earth* (2025). Most of the frame is black. What light there is comes from a green screen or an open hatch, and it hits the actors from the side, so half a face is all we get. Four cinematographers are credited on that series and Gonzales is one of them, yet the look holds from episode to episode, and holding a look across many hands is the thing he has spent decades learning to do. He came up through the camera department in the 1980s and 1990s, as assistant and then operator, and moved on to shooting features, among them *Snitch* (2013), *Criminal* (2016) and *Greenland* (2020). Television is where he made his name, on *Pretty Little Liars* and *Southland* and then, from its first season, on Noah Hawley's *Fargo* (2014). Hawley is the collaborator who matters. Gonzales shot *Fargo* and later directed and produced it; shot thirteen episodes of *Legion* (2017) and directed two; and on *Alien: Earth* directed four of the eight episodes while shooting and producing as well. Outside the Hawley shop he directed two episodes of the fifth season of *The Handmaid's Tale* (2022) and a feature, *Centurion: The Dancing Stallion* (2023). What works is control. He likes anamorphic lenses and long takes, and he uses them for pressure rather than display: the wide frame with a lot of nothing in it, the shot that runs a beat past comfort. On *Alien: Earth* the new creatures horrified us, and the dark they came out of was his as much as anyone's, laid over Jason Knox-Johnston and Andy Nicholson's heavy, practical sets so that every hatch looked like something you could bang your head on. He has said: "I’m a very visual director, but I put a lot of emphasis also into character, directing actors. I didn’t want to just be a visual director." The cast on that series does take the strangeness seriously, and some of that must be his. What we cannot yet point to is a Gonzales episode that looks or moves differently from the one before it, or a scene we would hand to the director rather than the cinematographer. On *Alien: Earth* his episodes sit beside Hawley's and Ugla Hauksdóttir's and match them, which is the job of a producing cinematographer and hard to praise as a directing signature. Our review of *The Handmaid's Tale* did not single him out, and that is fair: the series belonged to Elisabeth Moss's face and Ane Crabtree's red cloaks long before he arrived. His reputation remains a cinematographer's, and one feature has not changed that. The test is a series Hawley did not write and Gonzales did not light. When it comes we will look for the side light first, and then for whatever else is there. ## Biography Dana Gonzales is an American cinematographer and director. Born on 18 November 1963 in Los Angeles, he is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers. He has worked extensively as a cinematographer on feature films including *Greenland* (2020), *Shot Caller* (2017) and *Snitch* (2013), and on television series such as *Fargo* (2014–2023). Gonzales is a frequent collaborator with showrunner Noah Hawley, serving as director of photography on *Fargo* and *Legion*, and directing episodes of both series. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award and multiple nominations for his cinematography. For the FX series *Alien: Earth* (2025), Gonzales was cinematographer on the pilot episode and directed four episodes; he also served as an executive producer. His daughter Bella Gonzales worked as a cinematographer on the production. *Sources: theasc.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (6) ### Directed (4) — the average rests on these - *Alien: Earth* (2025), Fi1m 76, Director of Photography, Director, Executive Producer, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/tv/alien-earth.md) - *Legion* (2017), Fi1m 77, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/legion.md) - *The Handmaid's Tale* (2017), Fi1m 75, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-handmaids-tale.md) - *Fargo* (2014), Fi1m 82, Director, Cinematography, Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/fargo-2014.md) ### Crew (2) - *Crash* (2005), Fi1m 54, Camera Operator — [page](https://film.one/film/crash-2005.md) - *The Aviator* (2004), Fi1m 74, Additional Camera — [page](https://film.one/film/the-aviator.md) ## Complete filmography (26) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Toxic Avenger Unrated* (2025), Director of Photography - *Alien: Earth* (2025), series, Executive Producer, Director, Director of Photography — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/tv/alien-earth.md) - *The Changeling* (2023), series, Director - *Centurion: The Dancing Stallion* (2023), Director - *Greenland* (2020), "A" Camera Operator, Director of Photography - *Chambers* (2019), series, Director of Photography - *Shot Caller* (2017), Director of Photography - *The Handmaid's Tale* (2017), series, Director — Fi1m 75, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-handmaids-tale.md) - *Legion* (2017), series, Director — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/tv/legion.md) - *Incarnate* (2016), Director of Photography - *Criminal* (2016), Director of Photography - *Fargo* (2014), series, Director, Director of Photography, Producer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/fargo-2014.md) - *Empire State* (2013), Director of Photography, Camera Operator - *Snitch* (2013), Director of Photography - *Pretty Little Liars* (2010), series, Director - *Felon* (2008), Director of Photography - *Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles* (2008), Camera Operator - *Man in the Chair* (2007), Director of Photography - *Déjà Vu* (2006), "D" Camera Operator - *High Hopes* (2006), Director of Photography - *Crash* (2005), Camera Operator — Fi1m 54, [page](https://film.one/film/crash-2005.md) - *The Aviator* (2004), Additional Camera — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/the-aviator.md) - *Kalifornia* (1993), First Assistant Camera - *Alienator* (1990), First Assistant Camera - *Modern Girls* (1986), Additional Second Assistant Camera - *Hunter's Blood* (1986), Second Assistant Camera --- © 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/dana-gonzales