Biography
Wolfgang Held is a German-born American cinematographer. Born on 30 March 1963 in Bad Godesberg, he left Bonn after high school and spent two years hitchhiking around the world before studying American literature in Germany and earning an MFA in film from Temple University in 1992. He has lived in New York City since the early 1990s.
Held has photographed more than 100 films and television productions, working in both documentary and narrative forms. His credits include Brüno (2009), Teeth (2008), Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004), O.G. (2018), The Neighbors' Window (2019) and the anchoring film You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution... (2026). He won a Primetime Emmy for Carrier (2008) and received a further nomination for The Andy Warhol Diaries (2022).
He is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers and a founding member of the Kamerakollektiv in New York. Held is married to filmmaker Pola Rapaport.
