Reed Morano

Reed Morano (born April 15, 1977) is an American film director and cinematographer. Morano was the first woman in history to win both the Emmy and Directors Guild Award for directing a drama series in the same year for the pilot episode of The Handmaid's Tale. Morano is known for her cinematography on feature films such as Frozen River (2008), Kill Your Darlings (2013) and The Skeleton Twins (2014). In 2013, Morano became the youngest member of the American Society of Cinematographers at that time, and one of only 14 women in an organization of approximately 345 active members. Two years later, she made her directorial debut with her critically acclaimed feature film Meadowland. She also directed the first three episodes of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, for which she won an Emmy Award. She also won a Directors Guild of America Award for directing a drama series for the episode "Offred" of The Handmaid's Tale, which makes her the first woman to win the Emmy and Directors Guild Award for directing a drama series. Early life Morano was born in Omaha, Nebraska, one of two children of Lyn and Winslow Mankin. Sometime after she moved her with family to Minnesota at 8 months old, her parents divorced, and she and her brother, Justin (now a professor of climate science at Dartmouth College) lived with their mother on Long Island. After summering on Fire Island, they moved there year-round when her mother married Casey Morano. Morano acquired two older step-siblings and, later, half-siblings Jordan, Morgan and Ali. The blended family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, when Morano was in third grade; they returned to Long Island three years later, and Morano attended Beach Street Middle School in West Islip, New York. After further family moves, Morano attended high school in Hanover, New Hampshire. Her father, Casey, realizing her interest in theater and drama, "gave me a video camera and said, 'You’re gonna be the family documentarian.' When it was time to go to college, I was going to apply to Boston University for journalism and dad said, 'You love telling stories and taking pictures, why not apply to film school?'"