Jonathan S. Abrams is a native of Boston Massachusetts. He graduated in 1987 with a Bachelors of Sciences degree from Lyndon State College in Vermont, concentrating on theatre and television production. Upon graduating, he moved to Florida where he studied acting from John Robert Powers and worked in Audio/Visual, then with the Union as a Stagehand, Cameraman and Digital Projectionist for twelve years. In those twelve years as a freelance professional, he worked on and off at WXEL, a PBS station for five years as a Studio Cameraman and an E.F.P. Photojournalist for a television magazine show called, “South Florida Today”. He also shot many cable commercials and videos and has worked with many celebrities and producers, such as Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Jose Feliciano, former Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, John Savage and James Cameron to name a few.
Jonathan moved to Los Angeles in 2002 and has been working in the Motion Picture Industry ever since. In 2004, he joined the most elite organization in the world for Camera Operators called, The Society of Camera Operators (SOC), who raise money for the Los Angeles Children’s Eye Care Clinic.
By networking and making films he has gotten to know some of the biggest Directors of Photography in the industry. He has had numerous credits to his name in his twenty-eight year career thus far. His work includes, “America’s Next Top Model”, “Blades of Glory”, “Avatar”, “The Red Canvas” and one in particular that he shot second unit on called, “Ninong” with Dominick Keating (Star Trek “Enterprise”). In addition, he operated camera on a music video for Jason Evigan, son of actor Greg Evigan, jib camera for Cassie Davis from Australia and a recent Netflix show called, “The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia” with Emmy Award winner for multi-camera Director of Photography, John Simmons, ASC. He operated and associate produced on a film that was featured at the Pan African Film Festival called, “A Soul Diaspora” that took an Audience Choice award in 2011 and won an Academy Award in Africa . In the fall of 2011 he was invited to participate in the Golden Eye Film Festival in the Georgia Republic where he won a Golden Eye award for his operating camera work on a short film called, “The Pros and Cons of Breathing” for an AFI thesis project. Since then, he has had the opportunity to shoot as a Director of Photography, a TV series that was nominated in Canada called, “Bluff”, which is airing on ConvergeTV.com and a western which was released in April of 2017 called, “Western World” on Amazon Prime as well as recently in 2019 and associate produced and filmed extra scenes for “Art of Deception”. He just finished a TV movie called, “All Good Things”, which featured Morgan Fairchild, Corbin Bernsen and Sierra McCormick, also on Amazon Prime. He recently shot a short film called, “Sanvean”, which hit the festival circuit and has taken fourteen awards, including the Audience Choice award for Best Short 2017 at Playhouse West in Philadelphia, PA.
Although Jonathan is and loves being a Union Camera Operator, he is now, up and coming as a Director of Photography. Thus far, Jonathan has shot over thirteen commercials and 17 other projects to include shorts, features and a television episodic.