Kira Kelly

Kira Kelly
Born	Kira Denise Kelly
Education	Northwestern University (BS) [1]
Occupation	Cinematographer
Years active	1998–present
Website	www.kirakellydp.com

Kira Kelly is an American cinematographer. She is perhaps best known for her work on 13th , which earned her an Emmy Award nomination, and the cable series Queen Sugar . ^[2]

Career

Kelly is a graduate of Northwestern University with a major in Radio/Television/Film. ^[1] Her professional film career began as an electrician. In a 2017 interview on the public radio series The Frame, she indicated that she would also "shoot any project I could get my hands on." ^[3]

She also learned a lot from working as a gaffer on bigger budget projects. Her early work as a cinematographer included two features directed by Tom Gustafson and the Hulu series East Los High . ^[3]

A big break in her career occurred when Ava DuVernay reached out to her through social media. This eventually led to Kelly being hired to work on 13th, for which she received an Emmy Award nomination. ^{[2] [3]}

Influences

Kelly is influenced by the work of Rinko Kawauchi, Martina Hoogland Ivanow, and Cy Twombly. ^[2]

Selected filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2008	Reflections	Eli Hershiko
	America's Shadows: HIV Risk in Black & Latino Youth	Tchaiko Omawale
	Were the World Mine	Tom Gustafson
2009	Estilo Hip Hop	Virgilio Bravo and Loira Limbal
2012	Changing Face of Harlem	Shawn Batey
	Mariachi Gringo	Tom Gustafson
2013	Pop Star	Carlos Portugal
2014	Back on Board: Greg Louganis	Cheryl Furjanic
2016	13th	Ava DuVernay	Emmy Award nomination
2019	Skin in the Game	Adisa
2021	Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings	Destin Daniel Cretton	Additional photography
2024	Rez Ball	Sydney Freeland
2025	Him	Justin Tipping

Television

Year	Title	Director(s)	Notes
2020	Madam C. J. Walker	Kasi Lemmons and DeMane Davis
2019	The Red Line	Kevin Hooks, et al.
2017-2019	Queen Sugar	Ava DuVernay, et al.
2017	Iron Maidens
2013-2016	East Los High	Carlos Portugal, et al.
2021	Y: The Last Man	Louise Friedberg, Daisy von Scherler Mayer	2 episodes
2024	Echo	Sydney Freeland	4 episodes

Awards and recognition

• Nominated – Emmy Award for 13th ^[2]

References

1. "Kira Kelly's Linkedin Page". Linkedin.
2. Stuart, Sophia. "A conversation with '13th' cinematographer, Kira Kelly". cinemathread. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 12 Dec 2019. I am very drawn to the work of Rinko Kawauchi, her work is beautiful. Martina Hoogland Ivanow inspires me too. I find myself drawn to sit in front of Cy Twombly's paintings whenever I go to LACMA – I remember seeing his series The Four Seasons when they were at the Philadelphia Museum of Art years ago. I've brought Instant Light: Tarkovsky Polaroids with me to New Orleans to feed my eye.
3. Lanz, Michelle; Shifflett, Jonathan; Atkinson, Rosalie; Mardo, Paola (31 Aug 2017). "Kira Kelly is a Hollywood rarity: A female, African-American cinematographer". The Frame. Pasadena, California: Southern California Public Radio. Retrieved 12 December 2019. I started out as an electrician, in the lighting department. While I was there I was already shooting stuff, I'd shoot any project that I could get my hands on. I went to film school for cinematography, and then slowly but surely I moved up to gaffing. I was able to work on projects with much bigger budgets as a gaffer than I had when I was shooting. So I was able to learn a lot.

External links

• Kira Kelly at IMDb