With access to a revolving door of versatile freelancers, Natborn has two founding members: Director-cinematographer Peter Perenyi and his son, post-production professional Orion Perenyi
Peter Perenyi is a passionate and daringly versatile cinematographer and director, known for his impressive originality and ability to execute artistic visual ideas. Born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, Peter’s trilingual journey in the film industry began as a lighting technician at the famous Heilbronner Theater in ex-West Germany during the early 80s. Inspired to explore the world of cinema instead, he emigrated to Australia and became a film student, graduating with a specialty in cinematography techniques & editing at North Sydney Technical College. During his early career in Sydney, Peter’s talent for the screen, with an actor’s sensitivity, caught the attention of industry professionals. He appeared in numerous nationally broadcast and award-winning advertisements, predominantly for the ad agency McCann Erickson. Despite 6 years of non-stop growing success, Peter still felt a calling beyond acting and decided to embark on a new adventure in Toronto, Canada.
There, he quickly progressed from PA to assisting behind the camera on major-budget national commercials for prominent brands such as Yokohama, Cadillac, and Molson Dry. In 1991, Peter’s serendipitous encounter with his future wife brought him to New York City, where he settled down. With his newfound role as father of two, he had to support his life temporarily as a translator, including medical translations from English to Hungarian. He also translated from Hungarian to English for big budget Hungarian movies. Simultaneously, he contributed as a post-production technical associate on the acclaimed thirteen-part television documentary series “American Cinema,” hosted by John Lithgow, for PBS. Peter’s versatile skill set and dedication have enabled him to accumulate almost four decades of experience in directing, camera work, lighting, producing, writing, and editing.
Throughout the 21st century, Peter has become known for his exceptional work lighting and shooting over 150 high-profile executive interviews, primarily within the confines of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Additionally, he has served as a Camera Operator on the television series “StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson” for National Geographic, ABC/TV. Collaborating with renowned director and cinematographer Jaron Berman during his 26-episode tenure on the show, the series received Emmy nominations for three consecutive years and featured esteemed guests such as Buzz Aldrin, David Byrne, Herbie Hancock, Jeremy Irons, and Bill Clinton, to name just a few.
Peter continues to lead with unparalleled age-defying energy, focus, integrity, and a commitment to delivering top-quality artistic results. His truest passion for filmmaking, his directorial and cinematography work in recent years has gained significant recognition in the film festival circuit, so far earning him 36 laurels, including 8 wins in various categories including music video, drama and dance. Outside of his filmmaking endeavors, Peter is involved in creative writing and script doctoring. His painting talents have been encouraged by none less than the world renowned art critic Terrence Maloon of the National Gallery of Australia. Poetry and composing music with a powerful message for the world are Peter’s off-the-clock passions. With Peter Perenyi, the world can expect an unstoppable natural human force of creativity and excellence that shows no signs of slowing down.
As for Orion, he has been both involved and enamored with editing, music, cameras, acting, and AV tech throughout his entire life. Having already worked in many different occupational roles on countless productions (music videos, short films, documentaries, ads, etc.), events, concerts, plays, bands, and art projects–and all before his 30s–he’s become a jack of many trades. “One of the hardest working nobodies in showbiz”, in his own words. A frequent collaborator, Orion has been very involved in both the technical process of many of his father’s projects, as well as the creative, since 2010. The two of them have shared studio spaces ever since.
As of now, the team has moved their operation to Westchester County (just over 20 minutes from Manhattan) and just finished building and outfitting their third multimedia studio, bigger and better than ever.