Camera Operator, Live & Non-Scripted Lifetime Achievement Award

Charlie Huntley

Charlie Huntley saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. He decided he wanted to be a camera operator and drummer and never looked back. While in high school and then as a college student, majoring in ‘Radio, TV, Motion Pictures,’ he quickly developed operating skills working at the university’s television station on countless broadcasts including news, documentaries, symphony performances, basketball and football games. He fondly recalls experiences on 1950’s technology— working with turret cameras, mono recording devices and lighting scoops.

Charlie was still a student when he began operating commercially for the ACC Basketball Network. This led to other sports opportunities, traveling the world shooting amateur and professional events. Charlie won his first of five Emmy’s as a member of ABC Sports’ camera team for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Along the way he added entertainment productions to his credits, being hired in 1978 as a camera operator for Tony Awards broadcasts, where he shoots to this day. During his career Charlie has been fortunate to be the eye behind the camera for MTV’s Unplugged and VH1’s Storyteller—including episodes featuring Eric Clapton, Nirvana, Tony Bennett, Bruce Springsteen, Melissa Etheridge, and Stevie Nicks. He served on the camera team for Live from Lincoln Center and Live in HD from the Met for 20 and 8 years respectively. He has shot Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and MTV Awards, along with Super Bowl Halftime shows. Charlie’s technical team won an Emmy for NBC’s The Sound of Music Live and he shot, since 1992, Kennedy Center Honors.

Charlie was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He moved near and graduated from the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. Charlie has received three Peabody Awards and garnered 60 Emmy nominations. Last September he was honored by UNC for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts. Charlie currently lives and works in New York City. He recently portrayed a network camera operator on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. As for being a drummer, until the 1990’s Charlie was in various groups, however he found putting drummers on TV was more rewarding than playing.