Toby Oliver, ACS is an award-winning cinematographer whose career extends internationally from his native Australia. Named as one of Variety’s 10 Cinematographers to Watch in 2017, Toby has forged a remarkable and varied range of credits on feature films, documentaries and television.
His most recent project to wrap is the Netflix and Ludo production of the featuree ALLEN about an alien who returns to Earth after a 20 year absence to visit his best friend. Earlier this year Toby completed the Blumhouse / Universal Pictures sci-fi sequel M3GAN 2.0, for director Gerard Johnstone in New Zealand. Previously Toby shot the Netflix and See-Saw Films 6-part limited series APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, following real-life wellness guru and cancer fraud Belle Gibson, starring Kaitlyn Dever; in 2021 he shot the action comedy thriller DAYSHIFT for Netflix and director JJ Perry, with Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco as vampire hunters in the San Fernando Valley. His previous release was Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo’s comedy BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR for Lionsgate and Will Ferrell’s Gloria Sanchez Productions. The film follows two best friends who leave their midwestern town for the first time ever for a holiday in Florida. Toby then continued his work with Netflix on the second season of Liz Feldman’s acclaimed black comedy series DEAD TO ME;
Toby also lensed: THE DIRT, Jeff Tremaine’s biopic film on hard rock band Mötley Crüe for Netflix; INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY for director Adam Robitel; and writer/director Chris Landon’s comic thrillers HAPPY DEATH DAY and HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U for Universal and Blumhouse. In Australia he more recently shot the musical comedy SERIOUSLY RED, with Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale, directed by Gracie Otto.
He is best known for his work on Jordan Peele’s racially-charged thriller horror GET OUT for Blumhouse and Universal, starring Allison Williams and Daniel Kaluuya. The film premiered at a midnight screening at the Sundance Film Festival, ranked #1 at the U.S. Box Office on its opening weekend, and becoming a cultural phenomenon in the process went on to earn an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and three other nominations including Best Picture.
Previously, Toby shot Blumhouse Productions thriller THE DARKNESS for director Greg Mclean, starring Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell; and lensed indie fantasy drama WILDLING in New York for Maven Pictures and director Fritz Bohm with Liv Tyler, Bel Powley and Brad Dourif.
Toby’s work on the Australian WWI suspense war drama BENEATH HILL 60 earned him an Australian Film Institute Award, and the TV movie BEACONSFIELD, about a pair of miners trapped over a kilometer underground in a tiny cage, won a number of awards including an ACS Gold Award and the ACS Best in Show. He collected another ACS Gold Award for his vivid outback cinematography on Greg Mclean’s action-horror sequel WOLF CREEK 2 which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, as well as an Australian Academy nod for TV movie CARLOTTA. He also worked extensively in mainland China, shooting the hit Chinese language rom-com WAITING ALONE and the Australia/China co-production 33 POSTCARDS starring Guy Pearce.
A graduate of Melbourne’s renowned Swinburne Film School, Toby created many notable film images early in his career: from the ‘beautifully lit’ gritty black and white of his debut feature EVERYNIGHT… EVERYNIGHT which premiered at Venice; the box-office hit teen movie and Australian Film Institute Award winner LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI; to the ‘painterly approach’ of TOM WHITE, winner of the ACS Gold Tripod Award in 2005. His work has screened at major festivals around the world, including Venice, Sundance, Sydney, Melbourne, Busan, Montreal, Tokyo, Shanghai and Toronto.
Toby is an accredited member of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS), and a member of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) and IATSE Local 600.
