Daryn Okada

Daryn Okada

Birth : 1960-01-02, Los Angeles, California, USA

History

Daryn Okada, A.S.C. (born January 2, 1960) is a cinematographer and the former president of the American Society of Cinematographers. In 2015, Okada joined the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A highly prolific director of photography, Okada has worked on numerous well-known films including Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Lake Placid, Mean Girls, and American Reunion, many of which are directed by Steve Miner.

Profile

Daryn Okada
Daryn Okada

Movies

Dolphin Tale 2
Director of Photography
The team of people who saved Winter's life reassemble in the wake of her surrogate mother's passing in order to find her a companion so she can remain at the Clearwater Marine Hospital.
Let's Be Cops
Director of Photography
It's the ultimate buddy cop movie except for one thing: they're not cops. When two struggling pals dress as police officers for a costume party, they become neighborhood sensations. But when these newly-minted “heroes” get tangled in a real life web of mobsters and dirty detectives, they must put their fake badges on the line.
Blood Is Thicker Than Water: The Making of Halloween H20
Producer Malek Akkad, producer Paul Freeman, writer Robert Zappia, cinematographer Daryn Okada, editor Patrick Lussier, composer John Ottman, stunt coordinator Donna Keegan, make-up artist Brad Hardin and actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Nancy Stephens, Adam Hann-Byrd, Tom Kane and Chris Durand discuss all things H20 in this sprawling HD retrospective.
Movie 43
Director of Photography
Fifteen directors and an all-star cast created this twisted comedy that follows three teens on the hunt for the world's most banned film.
American Reunion
Director of Photography
The characters we met a little more than a decade ago return to East Great Falls for their high-school reunion. In one long-overdue weekend, they will discover what has changed, who hasn’t, and that time and distance can’t break the bonds of friendship.
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Director of Photography
Don Ready is many things, but he is best-known as an extraordinary salesman. When a car dealership in Temecula teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, he and his ragtag team dive in to save the day. But what Ready doesn't count on is falling in love and finding his soul.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Director of Photography
When notorious womanizer Connor Mead attends his brother Paul's wedding, he is forced to re-evaluate his behavior as he comes face-to-face with the ghosts of girlfriends past, present, and future, along with his deceased uncle. The experience changes his attitude and allows him to reconnect with his first and only love, Jenny.
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Director of Photography
Having satisfied their urge for White Castle, Harold and Kumar jump on a plane to catch up with Harold's love interest, who's headed for the Netherlands. But the pair must change their plans when Kumar is accused of being a terrorist. Rob Corddry also stars in this wild comedy sequel that follows the hapless stoners' misadventures as they try to avoid being captured by the Department of Homeland Security.
Baby Mama
Director of Photography
A successful, single businesswoman who dreams of having a baby discovers she is infertile and hires a working class woman to be her unlikely surrogate.
Sex and Death 101
Director of Photography
A guy's life is turned around by an email, which includes the names of everyone he's had sex with and ever will have sex with. His situation gets worse when he encounters a femme fatale (Ryder) who targets men guilty of sex crime.
Stick It
Director of Photography
Haley is a naturally gifted athlete but, with her social behavior, the teen seems intent on squandering her abilities. After a final brush with the law, a judge sentences her to an elite gymnastics academy run by a legendary, hard-nosed coach. Once there, Haley's rebellious attitude wins her both friends and enemies.
Just Like Heaven
Director of Photography
Shortly after David Abbott moves into his new San Francisco digs, he has an unwelcome visitor on his hands: winsome Elizabeth Martinson, who asserts that the apartment is hers -- and promptly vanishes. When she starts appearing and disappearing at will, David thinks she's a ghost, while Elizabeth is convinced she's alive.
Paparazzi
Director of Photography
A rising Hollywood actor decides to take personal revenge against a group of four persistent photographers to make them pay for almost causing a personal tragedy involving his wife and son.
Mean Girls
Director of Photography
Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
Second Unit Director of Photography
A small-town girl wins a date with a Hollywood star through a contest. When the date goes better than expected, a love triangle forms between the girl, the celebrity, and the girl's best friend.
Cradle 2 the Grave
Director of Photography
Gang leader Tony pulls off a major diamond heist with his crew, but cop-turned-criminal Ling knows who has the loot and responds by kidnapping Tony's daughter and holding her for ransom. Unfortunately, Tony's lost the diamonds as well. As he frantically searches for his daughter and the jewels, Tony pairs with a high-kicking government agent who once worked with Ling and seeks revenge on him.
Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat
Director of Photography
The controversial bad-boy of comedy delivers a piercing look at his life, lifting the metaphorical smokescreen that he feels has clouded the public view, commenting on everything from the dangers of smoking to the trials of relationships, and unleashing a nonstop litany of raucous anecdotes, stinging social commentary and very personal reflections about life.
Joe Somebody
Director of Photography
When underappreciated video specialist Joe Scheffer is brutally humiliated by the office bully Mark McKinney in front of his daughter, Joe begins a quest for personal redemption. He proceeds by enduring a personal make-over and takes martial arts lessons from a B-action star. As news spreads of his rematch with Mark, Joe suddenly finds himself the center of attention, ascending the corporate ladder and growing in popularity. He's determined to show everyone in his life that he is not a nobody, but a force to be reckoned with.
Texas Rangers
Director of Photography
Ten years after the Civil War has ended, the Governor of Texas asks Leander McNelly to form a company of Rangers to help uphold the law along the Mexican border. With a few veterans of the war, most of the recruits are young men who have little or no experience with guns or policing crime.
Good Advice
Director of Photography
An investment banker loses everything and must discover what's important in life.
Dr. Dolittle 2
Director of Photography
A group of beavers ask Dr. Dolittle to save their habitat from loggers. The only hope is to get the forest preserved because it's the home of a protected bear, but there's a problem: the bear's the only bear in the forest, so she can't reproduce. Undaunted, Dolittle persuades a circus bear to help out, but he has to teach him not just the ways of the wild, but the wiles of lady bears too.
Lake Placid
Director of Photography
When a man is eaten alive by an unknown creature, the local Game Warden teams up with a paleontologist from New York to find the beast. Add to the mix an eccentric philanthropist with a penchant for "Crocs", and here we go! This quiet, remote lake is suddenly the focus of an intense search for a crocodile with a taste for live animals...and people!
Payback
Additional Photography
With friends like these, who needs enemies? That's the question bad guy Porter is left asking after his wife and partner steal his heist money and leave him for dead -- or so they think. Five months and an endless reservoir of bitterness later, Porter's partners and the crooked cops on his tail learn how bad payback can be.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Director of Photography
Two decades after surviving a massacre on October 31, 1978, former baby sitter Laurie Strode finds herself hunted by persistent knife-wielder Michael Myers. Laurie now lives in Northern California under an assumed name, where she works as the headmistress of a private school. But it's not far enough to escape Myers, who soon discovers her whereabouts. As Halloween descends upon Laurie's peaceful community, a feeling of dread weighs upon her -- with good reason.
Senseless
Director of Photography
A student gets his senses enhanced by an experimental drug. But abuse is not an option.
Anna Karenina
Director of Photography
Anna Karenina, the wife of a Russian imperial minister, creates a high-society scandal by an affair with Count Vronsky, a dashing cavalry officer in 19th-century St. Petersburg.
Vanishing Point
Director of Photography
When his wife goes into a troubled labor while he is on the road over 1200 miles away James Kowalski, an ex race car driver and a former Army Ranger, attempts to elude police while trying to get home. After numerous chases he turns into a Native American reservation and reflects on his life, and his wife. He heads off to break through a police roadblock.
Black Sheep
Director of Photography
When dignified Albert Donnelly runs for Governor, his team moves to keep his slow-witted and klutzy younger brother, Mike, out of the eye of the media. To baby-sit Mike, the campaign assigns sarcastic Steve, who gets the experience of a lifetime when he tries to take Mike out of town during the election.
Big Bully
Cinematography
A writer returns to his hometown where he faces the childhood nemesis whose life he ultimately ruined, only the bully wants to relive their painful past by torturing him once again.
Eyes of Terror
Director of Photography
Dr. Jesse Newman is assigned to treating David, a grieving policeman who lost his partner in a shootout. It seems the case is solved, until a lucky coin belonging to David's partner triggers a revealing series of psychic visions for Dr. Newman. The visions not only implicate the killer, but also reveal the sordid habits of San Francisco's business and political elite.
My Father the Hero
Director of Photography
A teenage girl on vacation in the Bahamas with her divorced father tries to impress a potential boyfriend by saying that her father is actually her lover. Remake of the 1991 French film Mon père, ce héros.
Airborne
Director of Photography
Good-natured teen surfer Mitchell Goosen finds himself staying with his aunt and uncle in Cincinnati, Ohio when his parents head to Australia for work. There he meets his cousin, Wiley, and together they try to navigate the perils of high school—avoid the bullies, get the girl, and win a little respect.
Captain Ron
Director of Photography
When mild-mannered Martin Harvey finds out that he has inherited a vintage yacht, he decides to take his family on a Caribbean vacation to retrieve the vessel. Upon arriving on a small island and realizing that the ship is in rough shape, Martin and his family end up with more than they bargained for as the roguish Captain Ron signs on to sail the boat to Miami. It doesn't take long before Ron's anything-goes antics get the Harveys into plenty of trouble.
Boris and Natasha
Director of Photography
The classic cartoon spies, Boris and Natasha, get their very own live-action adventure. Sent to America to find an important microchip, the usually villainous duo begin to question who they're working for and why.
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
Director of Photography
A runaway orphan, young Sonora, persists in a menial job mucking stables in Doc Carver's travelling stunt show. Her great wish is to become a death-defying "diving girl," but Doc refuses her pleas. Undaunted, Sonora's gutsy resolve finally convinces him to give her a break. On the brink of stardom, however, a cruel twist of fate threatens to destroy her dream.
Blind Vengeance
Cinematography
A man seeks revenge on the white supremacists acquitted in the murder of his son
Punk Vacation
Director of Photography
A peaceful California town is shaken after the brutal murder of diner owner by a gang of vicious punks. When the daughter of the slain man attempts to avenge her father’s death, she’s held hostage by the gang resulting in an epic battle between punks and rednecks.
Survival Quest
Director of Photography
A bunch of city slickers from different backgrounds go into the wild mountains to be one with nature, but basically to have a good time. However, a paramilitary group has chosen the same time to go camping. When one of the soldiers thinks their boss has been killed by one of the city slickers, he coaxes his team into exterminating all of them. They will have to rely on their wits and on each other in order to survive.
Phantasm II
Director of Photography
Mike, after his release from a psychiatric hospital, teams up with his old pal Reggie to hunt down the Tall Man, who is at it again. A mysterious, beautiful girl has also become part of Mike's dreams, and they must find her before the Tall Man does.
Monaco Forever
Director of Photography
An American jewel thief in Monaco encounters various characters while trying to set up a robbery.
Frightmare
Key Grip
Drama students decide to pay tribute to their favorite horror star by stealing his body from his crypt for a farewell party. They fail to realize their violation of the tomb has triggered powerful black magic, and Conrad hasn't taken his final bows yet.
Angel Dust
Second Unit
A documentary exploring the effect of PCP on both the user and society, with particular focus on a Los Angeles salesperson named Jack's recreational usage of the drug.
Phantasm
Grip
A young boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber known only as the Tall Man, who keeps a mysterious arsenal of terrible weapons with him.