Zack Parker, a native of the Midwest, hails from the small town of Richmond, Indiana, where his fascination with filmmaking began at the tender age of 11. As he grew, his passion for the craft only intensified, leading him to pursue a formal education in filmmaking at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and later at the prestigious University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, California.
Despite his academic pursuits taking him to the West Coast, Parker remained committed to his Midwestern roots, frequently returning to the region to shoot his films. His dedication to his craft has yielded a remarkable body of work, including six shorts, with the most recent, Deception (2001),premiering at the Slamdunk Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in 2001.
Parker's breakthrough feature, In Exchange (2006),marked his directorial debut and garnered widespread critical acclaim within the horror genre, earning praise from esteemed publications such as Fangoria Magazine and Horror.com. The film's success led to its release in 15 countries on DVD, cementing Parker's status as a rising talent in the horror world.
The success of In Exchange was followed by Quench (2007),which premiered at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival and the Indianapolis International Film Festival, before being released by Vanguard Cinema in October 2008. Quench received widespread critical acclaim, earning Parker the Award for "Best Director of a Feature Film" at the New York International Independent Film Festival, as well as being named "One of the Best Films of the Year!" by Rogue Cinema.
Parker's third feature, the perceptual thriller Scalene (2011),starring veteran character actress Margo Martindale, Hanna Hall, and Adam Scarimbolo, was released internationally in 2012 by Gravitas Ventures and Breaking Glass Pictures. The film won several awards, including the "Grand Jury Award for Best Feature" at Dances with Films in Los Angeles, and was deemed a Critic's Pick by The New York Times and Filmmaker Magazine.
Currently, Parker is in post-production on Proxy (2013),a European-style dramatic thriller starring Alexia Rasmussen, Alexa Havins, Kristina Klebe, and Joe Swanberg.
