Dean Cundey, ASC grew up in Alhambra on the outskirts of Los Angeles. One of his hobbies in elementary school was building miniature sets and creating imaginary worlds filled with make believe actors and actresses. In high school, he discovered American Cinematographer magazine and became an avid fan.

Cundey enrolled at UCLA, where he studied architecture and cinema. James Wong Howe, ASC was teaching cinematography while he was preparing to shoot The Molly McGuires. That’s when he started thinking about becoming a cinematographer.           

After graduation, Cundey scrambled for several years doing pickup shots and inserts, and assisting editors who were cutting low-budget features. He scraped together enough money to outfit a small van with a camera, some lenses and lighting equipment. He rented the van to low-budget film producers, and he was usually part of the package. At first, he worked as a gaffer or technician. Cundey finally got a chance to shoot when a cinematographer that was scheduled to work on a film canceled at the last moment.            

Initially, Cundey worked on horror genre flicks with minuscule budgets. His breakthrough film was Halloween, directed by John Carpenter. It led to opportunities that included shooting Escape from New York, Romancing the Stone and Big Business.

Cundey earned an Oscar nomination forhis work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He earned ASC Outstanding Achievement Award nominations for Hook (1992) and Apollo 13 (1995). His other credits include Jurassic Park, the Back to the Future trilogy, Death Becomes Her, The Flintstones and Casper.