Cinematographer Gretchen Warthen is known for bringing a cinematic and lyrical vision to the unpredictable dialogue-driven world of unscripted and documentary filmmaking as well as the narrative world of scripted comedy. Gretchen is equally at home shooting on a Hollywood sound stage or from the back of a camel in India, an elephant in Thailand, the bow of a boat off Venezuela, hovering over Alaskan glaciers and the deserts of the Sahara in a helicopter – any shooting location and mode imaginable.  She has traveled the world with her camera, witnessing and capturing the stories of people's lives in over 48 countries around the globe. 

In her career Gretchen has worked as the Director of Photography for the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary feature "Circus of Books," the epic international OWN documentary series "Operation Change," the Emmy Award-winning NBC series “Starting Over,” the Showtime documentary series “The Real L Word” and the award winning documentary feature “East LA Interchange." Gretchen has also DP’d two award-winning narrative feature films, Sharon Gless’s “Hannah Free” and “Jamie and Jessie are Not Together.”

Gretchen has been a camera operator on popular Emmy Award-winning prime time reality programming, including “Project Runway,” “The Apprentice” and “America’s Next Top Model” as well as the popular scripted series FX’s “Mayans MC,” ABC’s “Splitting Up Together”, FOX’s “Call Me Kat” and “Welcome to Flatch.”  Gretchen has also been a camera operator on popular Live Comedy Specials including Netflix’s "Dave Chappell - Age of Spin” and “Hannah Gadsby - Douglas” and Peacock’s “Kevin Hart - Reality Check.”

Gretchen's work has been seen on major broadcast, cable and streaming networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, HBO, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Showtime, Bravo, A&E, The History Channel, OWN, YouTube RED, MTV, VH-1, Oxygen and Discovery.