Wally Pfister is an American cinematographer and director.

Pfister started his career as an production assistant for WMDT-TV in Salisbury, Maryland. Then, he landed a job as a cameraman for a Washington news service.

From 1982-1985, he covered the United States Congress, the White House and breaking news.  From then, he started his freelance career for the PBS series Frontline.

In 1988, he was hired by Robert Altman to do the HBO mini-series Tanner '88.

During his stint in American Film Institute, he collaborated with his classmates and created a short film, Senzeni Na? The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1991.

His first feature cinematography work came with The Unborn in 1991, which led to his working on a string of horror films.

He worked with director Christopher Nolan whom he met in Sundance Film Festival. Their first collaboration was 2000 film, Memento.

He served as director of photography for several films with Nolan, such as Insomnia in 2002, Batman Begins in 2005, The Prestige in 2006,  and The Dark Knight in 2008.

He was nominated four times for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and won an Academy Award for his work on Inception at the 83rd Academy Awards.

He also has been nominated three times for the American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases, for the film Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight and Inception, winning for the latter in 2011.

Walter C. Pfister was born on July 8, 1961 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.  He is married to Anna Julien and has three children.