Maximilian Schmige is a Los Angeles based TV Director and Cinematographer. He started off his career as DP in narrative, commercial and documentary / unscripted. As a DP he has filmed over 100 aired TV episodes. He had his TV directing debut with The CW sci-fi series Pandora, for which he was the DP on season one and two. He is also the director of the TV competition show (Ru Paul’s) Drag Race Germany on Paramount+, which was filmed in South America and he directed in three languages: English, German and Spanish. He continues to work in both professions as a DP and Director.

He is based in Los Angeles and originally from Berlin Germany. He grew up in the industry and is the son of the well-known German movie / TV writer Hartmann Schmige. He spent his early years in Germany, Finland and the UK before moving to the USA. He is at home in the US with international work experience in Germany, Greece, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Russia, Malaysia, Norway, Bulgaria, Serbia, and India. He speaks fluent English, German and Finnish; working proficiency in Spanish and French.

He is a graduate from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Film & Media Studies and the The American Film Institute with an MFA in cinematography. For more info on his cinematography work, please visit www.schmige.net