Biography:
After completing high school Denis Lenoir, a native Parisian, began studying medicine, but with very little success as it was during this time that he discovered the Cinémathèque Française. During the following two years, he managed to see one thousand films projected, fascinated as much by the Hollywood classics as the European avant-garde of the late sixties. To make a profession out of his passion he then joined the École Louis Lumière ("Vaugirard" at the time, named after the street where it was located) and studied there for two years. After film school he became a camera assistant, working with French cinematographers Bernard Lutic and Ricardo Aronovich.

At age 27, Lenoir decided to become a lighting cameraman and started soon after to film corporate movies. At the same time, he filmed shorts and was lucky enough to work for Olivier Assayas, then a Cahier du Cinéma critic, who became a friend.

In 1986 Assayas directed his first feature and asked Lenoir to light and operate the camera for it. It was the beginning of a long and still vital collaboration, amounting to seven films together to date, the last one, Demonlover, earned Denis Lenoir the Bronze Frog at Camerimage 2002.. Soon after, Lenoir worked with Patrice Leconte on Monsieur Hire, and Bertrand Tavernier on Daddy Nostalgie. Meanwhile he studied Art History at the École du Louvre and, because he wanted to interact with other DPs, he initiated, with two colleagues, the creation of the French cinematographers association, the A.F.C. where he later served for three years as treasurer and another three years as vice-president.

In 1989 he met by chance (in an airplane) Australian director Rolf De Heer and the following year shot Dingo (nominated for best cinematography at the Australian film Institute), partly in France and partly in the Australian outback, the first of a series of films in English. Two years in a row, Lenoir was invited to the Australian Film School in Sydney to conduct cinematography workshops from which tapes have been released. A genuine taste for the English language and more English films led him to work in 1994 for screenwriter and first-time director Christopher Hampton on Carrington followed the next year by Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent.

Already represented in the United States but always postponing the move, Lenoir finally shot in Chicago his first American feature Since You’ve Been Gone where he met local actress Joy Gregory (now a TV writer and his wife) and they decided to move together to southern California. Since 1997 Lenoir has lived in Los Angeles and has become a member of the American Society of Cinematographers, the A.S.C.. He has worked on the American features Thursday, Steal This Movie and The Clearing, the miniseries Uprising (2002 ASC Award for Best Cinematography, Emmy Nomination) but regularly flies back to France to visit family and friends and to film commercials or work with Assayas or De Heer. It is his work with the latter on The Old Man Who Read Love Stories which brought him the Kodak Prize for "Outstanding Contribution to Image Development" at the Madridimagem 2001 Film Festival. He has shot twenty-six theater released films and dozens of commercials and music videos. He is also a recognized still photographer and the author of the first book in French on film director John Cassavetes, published in Paris in 1986.

Lenoir, a knight of the Ordre National du Mérite, has two children. He enjoys hiking and cooking.

Feature Films:
The Clearing - Director: Pieter Jan Brugge - Fox Searchlight
Demonlover - Director: Olivier Assayas - M-6 Films
Uprising - Director: Jon Avnet - Jon Avnet Films. ASC AWARD, Emmy Nomination
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories - Director: R. De Heer - Producer: Michelle de Broco
Steal This Movie - Director: Robert Greenwald - Producer: Jake Rose
Fin Aout Debut Septembre - Director: Olivier Assayas - Producer: Phillippe Carcassonne
Thursday - Director: Skip Woods - Producer: Alan Poul
Clubbed To Death - Director: Yolanda Zauberman - Producer: Alain Massiot
The Secret Agent - Director: Christopher Hampton - Producer: Norma Heyman
Carrington - Director: Christopher Hampton - Producer: John McGraih
The Separation - Director: Christian Vincent - Producer: Claud Berri
Leau Froide - Director: Olivier Assayas - Producer: Georges Benayoun
La Partie D' Echecs - Director: Yves Hanchar - Producer: A.D. Toussaini
Decadence - Director: Steven Berkoff - Producer: Lance Reynolds
Une Nouvelle Vie - Director: Olivier Assayas - Producer: Bruno Pesery
Beau Fixe - Director: Christian Vincent - Producer: Alain Roca
Sombre Histoire - Director: Peter Kassowitz - Producer: Maurice Illouz
Paris S'Eveille - Director: Olivier Assayas - Producer: Bruno Pesery
Shuttlecock - Director: Andrew Piddington - Producer: Graham Leader
Dingo - Director: R. De Heer - Producer: Mark Rosenberg & R. De Heer
Daddy Nostalgie - Director: Bertrand Tavemier - Producer: Adolphe Viezzi
Monsieur Hire - Director: Patrice Leconie - Producer: Phillipe Carcassonne & Rene Cleitman
Le Bal Du Gouverneur - Director: M.F. Pisier - Producer: Phillipe Carcassonne
L'Enfant De L'Hiver - Director: Olivier Assayas - Producer: Paolo Branco
La Lumiere Du Lac - Director: Francesca Commencini - Producer: D. Toscan du Plantier
Ville Strangere - Director: Didier Goldschmidt
Tandem - Director: Patrice Leconte - Producer: Phillipe Carcassone & Rene Clietman
Desordre - Director: Olivier Assayas - Producer: C.E. Poiroux

Television:
Boomtown - Director: John Avnet - Producer : Steve Sasson
Natalie Cole Story - Director: Robert Townsend - Producer: Robert Greenwald
Meatloaf: Behind the Music - Director: Jim McBride - Producer: Jeff Freilich
Since You've Been Gone - Director: David Schwimmer - Producer: Richard Gladstone

Music Videos/Commercials:
Include: David Byrne - Vittel - Ralph Lauren and Kookai

Awards:
- Camerimage 2002 Bronze Frog for DEMON LOVER
- ASC Award & Emmy Nomination for UPRISING