Highlights
- Andrij Parekh is half Ukrainian-half Indian who was raised in the United States
- Parekh won the Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Award at Emmys 2020
- Parekh dedicated his award to migrant kids with ‘difficult to pronounce names’ and ‘outsiders’
The Indian-origin director beat other prominent contenders such as Benjamin Caron and Jessica Hobbs for The Crown, Lesli Linka Glatter for Homeland, Mimi Leder for The Morning Show, Alik Sakharov and Ben Semanoff for Ozark, and Mark Mylod for Succession to take home the prestigious Emmys 2020 award for directing the 'Hunting' episode of HBO's drama series ‘Succession’.
“I am deeply honoured and not the least bit humbled by this award. This distinction has been bestowed on my birthday, so thank you for this charming gift,” Parekh said in his acceptance speech.
But he won plaudits for speech in which he dedicated the award to kids and people whose ‘names are hard to pronounce’ and who are looked upon as ‘outsiders’.
“I want to dedicate this Emmy to all the kids whose names, like mine, are difficult to pronounce, to those who don’t look like their classmates and are defined as outsiders, as hyphenated Americans, and not simply just as Americans. This is proof that you belong. And this Emmy is ours,” he said.
Parekh was born in Boston and raised in Minneapolis.
He is a director-cinematographer of Ukrainian and Indian descent, who studied cinematography at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts (MFA in 2001), and at FAMU (Prague, 1998).
He has worked on shows like Half Belson, Sugar, Blue Valentine, The Zookeeper's Wife, 13 Reasons Why, Madame Bovary and Show Me a Hero and as director and cinematographer for Succession.
His films have played at Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, Sundance, NYFF & New Directors/New Films.
Watch Andrij Parekh's acceptance speech:
Andrij Parekh and Director-wife Sophie Barthes attend the premiere of "Cold Souls" during the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Source: Clayton Chase/WireImage
The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards were originally slated to be held in Los Angeles, but it was later decided to hold it virtually from the actors' homes across the US due to the COVID-19 pandemic. American television host Jimmy Kimmel hosted Emmys this year.
