Josh Murphy is a director and producer of film, commercials, and branded entertainment who began his career in film as a professional skier turned filmmaker and launched the UNPARALLELED series of award winning action sports films in the early 2000’s. He was co-producer and second unit director of the narrative film adaptation of the classic outdoor novel by David James Dunkin THE RIVER WHY (2010), and was a producer of the elevated genre film HERE ALONE (2016) that won the Best Narrative film at the Tribeca Film Festival. He co-produced the inspirational feature documentary THE PUSH (2018) about the first spinal cord injured athlete to push himself to the South Pole, was a contributor to Academy Award winner Alex Gibney’s film THE INVENTOR (2019) about Elizabeth Holmes and the failure of biotech giant Theranos. He directed, produced, and co-wrote the multi-award winning feature documentary ARTIFISHAL (2019) that was commissioned by Patagonia founder and owner Yvon Chouinard and premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival where it was a finalist for the Tribeca X Prize. It won the Banff Film Festival, the San Francisco Green Film Festival, the American Conservation Film Festival, the InScience Film Festival in the Netherlands, the International Outdoor Documentary Festival of China, the Special Jury Award from the Jackson Wild Film Festival, the Jury Award at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, the Golden Gate Award at the International Oceans Film Festival and a Bronze Clio for Branded Entertainment. It had over 3000 local screenings worldwide before being released on Amazon Prime, iTunes, and YouTube where it earned over 2 million views in the first month.

He directed and produced PURPLE MOUNTAINS for POW (Protect Our Winters) about legendary snowboarder turned climate activist, Jeremy Jones which won a Bronze Clio for branded film and Gold Shorty Award for its impact campaign. He directed and produced THE SCALE OF HOPE for Patagonia about aspiring alpinist, climate activist, and former Obama White House Climate Team member, Molly Kawahata, as she struggles with mental illness while trying to create a new climate narrative framed around systemic change and hope. It was the first film released following the bombshell news of Patagonia owners giving away the company profits to take action on climate issues and environment. The film won the AICP NEXT Award for Best Branded film and is now in the permanent collection at the MoMA in NYC. In addition to ongoing cause-based commercial work, he’s co-directing and producing a film about the global plastics epidemic with Oscar winner Louie Psihoyos (THE COVE, RACING EXTINCTION, THE GAME CHANGERS) which began production in 2022.

Commercial and broadcast clients include Intel, Avaya, Diligent, Thompson Reuters, The North Face, GoPro, Coca Cola, Mars, Clif Bar, Theranos, Patagonia, Outdoor Research, Gilead, Nintendo, Funny or Die, PLS, Sunsweet, Health Mart/McKesson, Brawny, The Clorox Company, Bloomberg Foundation, SanDisk, and Volvo. He was the Executive Producer of Mustang Ranch: Labor of Love for HDNet and his broadcast productions have been featured on PBS, CBS, ESPN, CMT, OLN, VH1, G4, VS, and FOX. He is the recipient of North American Snow Sports Journalist Association’s Bill Berry Award for Modern Media, the Harold Hirsch Award for Film and Broadcast, and was a finalist for the San Francisco Film Society’s Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmakers Grant.

Prior to film he was trained as a scientist with two degrees in natural resource science and fisheries biologist. His childhood idol was Jacques Cousteau and through him he discovered a love for film and the environment.