About: Troy Paff
Current Projects
He is currently at work on a feature documentary about the theft, discovery, and return of a famous Nudie Suit originally worn by Chris Ethridge on the Flying Burrito Brothers' 1969 album The Gilded Palace of Sin and later by Elton John on the UK release of “Rocket Man.” The working title of the film is The Suit and Rolling Stone Magazine wrote an exclusive about the project.
Television Work
On Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, he was a two-time Emmy nominee for Best Cinematography, Reality Television. He teamed with Mike again as Director of Photography on CNN’s Somebody's Gotta Do It.
With Andrew Zimmern, Troy contributed as DP on Travel Channel's long-running series Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and The Zimmern List (Emmy winner, Outstanding Travel and Adventure Program), and again on Magnolia Network's Family Dinner.
As a director and DP, Troy has shot for a multitude of shows in the adventure, culture, lifestyle, and true crime genres for networks like Discovery, History, Nat Geo, Travel Channel, Food Network, A&E, Sundance, and Oxygen, traveling the globe to capture human stories in typically extreme environments. From the inaugural season of Nat Geo's Wicked Tuna as a shooter-producer aboard FV Christina and a back country turn on Daytime Emmy winner Rock the Park to the summit of Kilimanjaro and the steppes of Mongolia by horseback on multiple webisode series for esteemed guide company Tusker Trail, if there’s daring behind a project — all the better. True crime your thing? Troy has contributed to multiple seasons of the long running cold case procedural Snapped.
Troy has shot in 50 states and on 6 continents, surviving hypothermia three times, drowning twice, Shark Week once, and thus far has avoided catching fire.
Film Projects
Independent Film Projects:- Pavement Ends – Writer and AMPAS screenwriting semifinalist
- Nana Carmen – Co-producer and Sundance Institute semifinalist
- Slide Ranch: Where the Bay Area Gets Down to Earth – Co-director/editor, premiered at the Siskiyou Environmental Film Festival, raised significant funds for its nonprofit subject
- Breached – NYU grad thesis film (Producer), premiered at Tribeca, screened at the Telluride Film Festival and festivals worldwide
- The Naked Ape – Producer of this fiction feature, which enjoyed an extensive festival run
- Lifeline: Tibet – Co-producer/co-director/editor; supported Children’s Lifeline, documenting a multi-national medical delegation aiding Tibetan children
- Movimiento – Producer/director/camera/editor; chronicled a youth delegation’s work in El Salvador. Used as a fundraising tool for 501(c)3
- Alexander’s Cliffhangers – Co-producer/co-director; documented a charity climb of Mt. Shasta for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy awareness
- Texas Music Revolution – Producer/director/camera; Troy's feature length directorial debut
- The Suit – Producer/director/camera; Troy's second feature, in production
Commercial-Nonprofit
As a contracted camera operator, Troy has shot everything from SWAT team competitions to a distinguished author interview series for the NEA’s The Big Read.
From 2010–2011, he produced The Journeyman Project, a photo essay series honoring tradesmen across the country, inspired by his eight years on Dirty Jobs. The project blends portraiture and prose, and celebrates the American worker’s grit, skill, and determination during challenging economic times.
His clients have included high-profile nonprofit and corporate organizations such as: the American Heart Association, the Democratic National Convention, Oracle, Cadence, Pfizer, Lilly, Pharmacia, and the State Bar of California.
Early Career
For six years in the 1990s, Troy served as an instructional designer and medical photographer for Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, collaborating with UCLA and USC medical faculty to produce live surgical symposia and medical content using cutting-edge technology.
After attending the Telluride Film Festival in 1993 as a student symposium invitee, he went on to volunteer and later manage the festival’s largest venue for thirteen seasons.
Personal
Troy was born in 1968 in Cleveland, Ohio. His latchkey childhood involved running through the forests and deserts of Ohio and Arizona. In 1989, he drove to Los Angeles to pursue film school. In 2002, after 13 years in Southern California, he relocated to Taos, New Mexico.
He lives there today, raising his daughter and parsing out time for photography, rock climbing, running, cycling, filmmaking (of course), and renovating his home in historic Taos.