Biography
Paula Hunziker is an award winning director born and raised in Southern California with a successful career in the film and television industry for the past 25 years. As a graduate of Cal Sate University Long Beach’s Radio, TV & Film department, Paula pursued her love of editing and passion to direct into her early career as a Script Supervisor. She has worked on many independent features and has spent the last 20 years in all genres of Episodic Television, from Drama, Action & Comedy to Horror.
Her time on set has given her undeniable expertise visually, tonally and editorially on the needs of the show. Paula truly understands the filmmaking process, has a great ability to cut to the heart of an issue, works wonderfully with other departments, and is an impeccable multi-tasker.
In December of 2012, Paula co-wrote, produced and directed her 15 minute short film “You & Me”. She showed how she could deliver a strong character driven piece that was selected into multiple film festivals, garnering her three awards in the 2015 Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, including Best Director, Best Screenplay and the Mary Austin Award for Best Female Director.
This success paved her way into two studio directing programs. Paula is an alum of both the ABC/Disney Directing Program and the Warner Bros Directing Workshop. She harnessed those experiences into directing on the Freeform series “Pretty Little Liars” and “Famous in Love”. She was brought on to helm an episodes of “911” & “911 Lone Star” for Ryan Murphy Television as well as multiple episodes of “Station 19” for Shondaland.
Director
Walker – CW / CBS Studios – Ep 312 – “Best Laid Plans”
Station 19 – Shondaland / ABC Studios – Ep 608 – “I Know A Place”
Station 19 – Shondaland / ABC Studios – Ep 517 – “The Road You Didn’t Take”
Station 19 – Shondaland / ABC Studios – Ep 509 – “Started From The Bottom”
911 – 20th Century Fox / Ryan Murphy TV – Ep 506 – “Brawl In Cell Block 911”
911 Lone Star – 20th Century Fox/ Ryan Murphy TV – Ep 207 – “Displaced”
Famous In Love – Warner Horizon / Freeform – Ep 205 – “Reality Bites Back”
Pretty Little Liars – Warner Horizon / Freeform – Ep 716 – “The Glove That Rocks The Cradle”
Pretty Little Liars – Warner Horizon / Freeform – Ep 617 – “We’ve All Got Baggage”
You & Me – NightSky Entertainment
Stand Up – NightSky Entertainment / Jill7Prods
Writer / Producer
You & Me – NightSky Entertainment
Studio Directing Programs Participant
Warner Bros Television Directing Workshop – Chris Mack, Bethany Rooney
ABC/Disney Directing Program (Disney/ABC CTDI) – Janine Jones-Clark, Emerlynn Lompitoc, Victor Bui
Film Festivals
You & Me – California International Short Festival – 2014
You & Me – IFFCA – International Film Fest of Cinematic Arts – 2014
You & Me – Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema – 2015
You & Me – Pasadena International Film Festival – 2015
Awards
Grand Jury Award: Best Featurette – Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema – 2015
Mary Austin Award: Best Director Feature/Featurette – Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema – 2015
Best Screenplay: Featurette – Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema – 2015