Rudy Valdez is a two-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and commercial director known for intimate, socially conscious storytelling. His breakthrough documentary The Sentence (HBO, 2018)—which he shot, directed, and crewed himself—won the Sundance U.S. Documentary Audience Award and earned him the 2019 Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. A self-taught cinematographer who worked on projects for Sebastian Junger, Whoopi Goldberg, and the Peabody-winning series Brick City, Valdez brings a hands-on, hyphenate approach to directing. His recent work includes the Disney+ docuseries Choir (Imagine Documentaries/Blumhouse Television), the Carlos Santana documentary Carlos (Sony Pictures Classics, Critics' Choice nomination), and ESPN's 30 for 30 installment Breakaway. His branded documentary Translators for U.S. Bank and McCann Worldgroup, which explores Latino immigrant families and language barriers, won the Tribeca X Award for Best Short Documentary. Valdez is working with Park Pictures for commercials and operates his own Bluff Road Films banner under an overall deal with Imagine Documentaries. He is based in New York City.