Academy Award-winning cinematographer Dean Semler was born in South Australia, and his first job was as a props boy at a local TV station. As he rose through the ranks at the station he eventually became a documentary filmmaker shooting in locations from Asia, New Guinea, Paraguay to Russia. Commercials and TV spots followed and finally feature films. His role as cinematographer on Road Warrior opened a number of doors and soon he was shooting major Hollywood films from Cocktail with Tom Cruise to Young Guns, City Slickers and Lonesome Dove. In 1991 Dean collaborated with Kevin Costner on Dances With Wolves for which he received an Oscar and several other prestigious awards. Offers kept coming in, including reuniting with Costner on Waterworld as well as with Mel Gibson on We Were Soldiers and Apocalypto, his favorite movie of all time. His career continued to move forward, working with Adam Sandler on a number of films, Angelina Jolie on her first feature film as director as well as Ed Harris’ Appaloosa and his most recent film, Grudge Match with Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro.

Dean lives with his wife Annie and family in Los Angeles, but home will always be Australia. In 2002 Dean was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), one of the country’s highest and most prestigious awards. After numerous engagements speaking at schools, organizations and to civic groups about how a small-town Aussie lad could achieve so much, he decided to sit down and write his memoirs.