Kseniya Sereda

Ksenia Sereda (; born August 24, 1994) is a Russian cinematographer, and the television series The Last of Us (2023–present). She won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Cinematographer for Beanpole in 2019. According to film producer Alexander Rodnyansky, Ksenia Sereda has become a symbol of the feminization of the cinematography profession in Russia.

Career

Ksenia Sereda was born in Moscow, Russia, on August 24, 1994. As a schoolgirl, she developed an interest in photography, attending a photography club at the Moscow Palace of Pioneers. She graduated from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in 2017, studying under Yuri Nevsky. Her early works include the documentary for the Gogol Center’s play Who Is Happy in Russia? (2015), the film Acid (2018) by Alexander Gorchilin, which won the Best Debut at the Kinotavr Film Festival, and the series Call DiCaprio! (2018) by Zhora Kryzhovnikov. For her work on Beanpole, Sereda won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Cinematographer, becoming the first woman to receive this award.

She later worked on the film Chernobyl: Abyss (2021), directed by Danila Kozlovsky. In 2021, Sereda was invited by showrunner Craig Mazin to serve as the cinematographer for the pilot episode of the HBO series The Last of Us, directed by Balagov. Although Balagov left the project due to creative differences, Sereda continued, shooting the first, second, and seventh episodes of the first season. The series received critical acclaim for its cinematic adaptation of the video game. She developed custom lenses with Arri, each engraved with a pink Firefly logo.