Biography
Adrian Pruett grew up in the Florida Keys. At twelve he left for the Milton Hershey School, the Pennsylvania boarding school the chocolate magnate built for underprivileged children. Obsessed with stories and moving images from a young age, he studied film at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas before arriving in Los Angeles in 2002 with a suitcase and an old truck.
His first television job was The Real World: Paris, in 2003, when reality programming was still an extension of vérité documentary. Over more than two decades he has worked on a hundred-plus airing television series, a dozen independent features, and hundreds of commercials, music videos, and art films, shooting in two dozen countries for Disney+, Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, FOX, NBC, ABC, and CBS.
He was director of photography for seasons 10–12 of MasterChef and four seasons of LEGO Masters, produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment. His feature work as cinematographer includes Venus as a Boy, the Ty Hodges drama that premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Festival and finished runner-up for the Audience Award.
Pruett co-directed Red Table Talk and directed Disney+'s Turning the Tables with Robin Roberts and the special Recipe for Change: Standing Up to Antisemitism — three Emmy®-winning programs. In 2024 he was nominated for the Daytime Emmy® for directing the second season of Turning the Tables. He is an active member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Producers Guild of America (PGA), and the International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600).
