Born in Peru, Checco began his career as a news cameraman working for all of the major news networks, including NBC, CNN, CBS, CBC (Canada), BBC(UK), RAI (Italy) and TVE (Spain). From 1985 to 1994 Varese specialized in shooting the world's major areas of conflict from Mexico, Central and South America (Chiapas Uprising, Salvador and Nicaragua Wars, Panama Invasion, Columbia Drug War, Shining Path, Haiti Crisis, Chile Military Junta), to Europe (Bosnia Crisis, Chechnya Crisis), the Middle East (Gulf War, West Bank and Gaza Strip Crisis) and Africa (South African Riots and the Rwanda Crisis). He retired from news only to become one of the leading Latin American directors of photography. He has shot hundreds of music videos, including Dave Matthew's Band "Crash" and Prince's "Black Sweat" for which he was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2006 MTV VMA Awards. Varese's visual talent and expertise is sought after by TV commercial clients such as McDonalds, Budweiser, Miller Lite Beer, Bell South and Dannon Yogurt. His television and feature films credits include Fox Searchlight's Sundance hit UNDER THE SAME MOON; Screen Gems' teenage blockbuster PROM NIGHT; THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, starring Halle Barry and produced by Ophrah Winfrey; EL AURA, the follow-up film from NINE QUEENS director Fabián Bielinsky and the Showtime mini-series, FIDEL, starring Gael Garcia Bernal.

PROM NIGHT
Screen Gems / Original Films — Dir. Nelson McCormick
Exec. Producer: Neal H. Moritz; Producer: Glenn Gainor

UNDER THE SAME MOON (LA MISMA LUNA)
Fox Searchlight Pictures / The Weinstein Company — Director: Patricia Riggen
Prods: Patricia Riggen, Gerardo Barrera
*Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2007
*Official Selection Toronto Film Festival 2007

El AURA
Patagonik Film Group/IFC First Take — Director: Fabián Bielinsky
Exec. Prods: Cecilia Bossi, Victor Hadida, Ariel Saúl; Prods: Mariela Besuievski, Pablo Bossi, Samuel Hadida, Gerardo Herrero
*Winner Silver Condor, Best Cinematography, Argentinean Film Critics Assocation Awards, 2006
*Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema — Dramatic, Sundance Film Festival, 2006

NIGHT AT THE GOLDEN EAGLE
Shangri-La Entertainment/Screen Media Films, LLC — Director: Adam Rifkin
Executive Producers: Mindy Marin, Morgan Sackett; Producer: Steve Bing
*Winner of the New York Independent Film & Video Festival Award for Best Cinematography

DUST TO DUST
Altavista Films/Venevision International — Director: Juan Carlos de Llaca
Executive Producer: Francisco González Compeán; Producer: Anna Roth

LIFE (Pilot)
NBC / Universal — Dir. David Semel
Executive Producers: Rand Ravich, Far Shariat, David Semel; Producer: Loucas George

**HUSTLE (Season 4: Episodes 1 & 6)
BBC / AMC — Dir. Alrick Riley
Executive Producers: Tony Jordan, Simon Crawford; Producer: Kathryn Riccio

EMILY'S REASONS WHY NOT (Pilot) (Shot on HD)
ABC — Director: Michael Patrick Jann
Executive Producers: Allison Adler, Vivian Cannon, Gavin Polone, Robin Schiff

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD (MOW)
ABC — Director: Darnell Martin
Executive Producers: Kate Forte, Quincy Jones, Oprah Winfrey; Producer: Matthew Carlisle

THE UNIT (Pilot)
20th Century Fox Television / CBS — Director: David Guggenheim
Executive Producers: Carol Flint, Vahan Moosekian, Shawn Ryan; Producer: Sharon Lee Watson

GLOBAL FREQUENCY (Pilot)
Tollin/Robbins Productions — Director: Nelson McCormick
Executive Producer: John Rogers; Producer: Mark Burnett; Associate Producer: Brian Wankum

A SEPARATE PEACE (MOW)
Paramount Television / Showtime Networks — Director: Peter Yates
Executive Producer: Michael Sugar

COMFORT AND JOY (MOW)
Paramount Television / Lifetime — Director: Maggie Greenwald
Executive Producers: David J. Collins, Judd Parkin, Ron Ziskin; Producer: Cathy Mickel Gibson; Line Producer: Armand Leo

FIDEL (MOW)
Paramount Television / Showtime Networks — Director: David Attwood
Executive Producer: David V. Picker; Producers: Jose Ludlow; Line Producer: Mariano Carranco

PRIMAL FORCE (MOW)
Paramount Television — Director: Nelson McCormick
Executive Producers: Steve White, Sheri Singer; Producer: Christopher Webster; Line Producer: Jose Ludlow

LOST IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE (MOW)
Paramount Television — Director: Norberto Barba
Executive Producer: Steve White; Line Producer: Jose Ludlow

LA MACETA (Short)
Producciones Mexico — Director: Javier Patron; Producers: Epigmenio Ibarra, Avelino Rodriguez, Inna Payan

ALIVE: 20 YEARS LATER (Documentary)
Touchstone Pictures — Director: Jill Fullerton-Smith

THE MAYAS (Documentary)
National Geographic — Director: Christine Weber

COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY (Documentary)
WCGH-PBS Boston/BBC — Director: G. Graham

1985—1994 as Cameraman for: NBC, CNN, CBS, CBC (Canada), BBC (UK), RAI (Italy), TVE (Spain)
Mexico: Chiapas Uprising
Central and South America: Salvador and Nicaragua Wars, Panama Invasion, Columbia Drug War, Peru Sinning Path, Haiti Crisis, Brazil Street Kids, Chile Military Junta
Europe: Bosnia Crisis, Chechenya Crisis
Middle East: Gulf War, West Bank and Gaza Strip Crisis
Africa: South African Riots, Rawanda Crisis


LANGUAGES

English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, some German
Passports: Italy, Peru, US Resident