Biography
Joseph D. Urbanczyk is an American cinematographer and camera operator. He graduated with an MFA from New York University's Graduate Division of Film in 1981, where he studied with László Benedek, Nicholas Ray and Béla Bartók. In 1980 he received a Kosciuszko Foundation Grant to attend the Wrocław University Film Program in Poland. Two years later he earned a second MFA from the American Film Institute as a Cinematography Fellow and recipient of the Sherrill C. Corwin Fellowship.
In 1985 he won the Benson Award for Best Cinematography at the Denver Film Festival for his work on the AFI short The Horse Dealer's Daughter. He began his professional career as an AFI Cinematography Intern with Vilmos Zsigmond on The River (1984), a collaboration that continued for over two decades; he later served as camera operator on Zsigmond's The Black Dahlia (2006).
Urbanczyk has worked as director of photography on the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008) and on features including The Allnighter (1987) and Repo (2010). He has also held camera operator and second-unit roles on numerous films such as The Fast and the Furious (2001), Bones (2005) and The Black Dahlia.
