Jean-Paul Chreky - Biography

Jean-Paul Chreky grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Potomac, Maryland. He had many interests as a child, earning his black belt in Tae Kwon Do and scuba certification, playing the violin and clarinet, and adoring sports. Jean-Paul's fascination with nature led him to major in Biology at the University of North Carolina - Wilmington. But it was also here, where his love for films began to blossom and he decided to pursue filmmaking rather than medical school.

Jean-Paul graduated at the top of his class with an MFA in Motion Picture Production from the University of Miami and with an A academic average in both his science and fine art degrees. His graduate thesis film, The Shell (2005), won four of seven possible awards at the 2005 Canes Film Festival. These include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editor, and Best Music. In 2004, Jean-Paul's graduate first-year film, Triton (2004), won the Jury Award, Best Director Award, and Best Cinematography Award and in 2008, a film he produced, No One Doubts the Camera Eye (2008), won the Best Picture and Best Editor awards at the same event. He is the only University of Miami MFA film student to ever win the Best Director Award for both the thesis film and the first-year film. The Shell (2005), No One Doubts the Camera Eye (2008), and Trunk (2009) are also Florida Choice Award recipients selected by The Education Channel and have screened at Paramount Studios.

Jean-Paul has instructed film production classes at the University of Miami, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, American University, and the Jacobson Sinai Academy. Today, Jean-Paul continues to assist in the development of a multitude of productions by working behind the scenes.