German has a wealth of invaluable experience in the unscripted television world. Spanning over 20 years. He’s done everything from PA to AC, then to camera operating and DP. Eventually this lead to an opportunity to direct, where he found his passion lies.
Some of his credits include The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise for ABC. Gordon’s Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell & Back and Hotel Hell, multiple seasons of Bravo’s hit show Below Deck, and the MTV and Paramount+ favorite The Challenge World Championship. German has directed shows for Fox, Netflix, Food Network, E!, VH1, WeTv, OWN, Paramount+ and TLC.
Directing a variety of projects has given him the opportunity to work with the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Jimmy Kimmel, Naomi Judd, Curtis Stone, and Dolly Parton. German has also worked with top hip hop arttist 2 Chainz on Vice TV’s Most Expensivest series, Chrissy Teigen on Roku’s unscripted comedy series, Chrissy’s Court and Joel McHale on E!’s Celebrity Beef.
Whether it’s a two camera follow doc or a ten plus multi-cam competition series, a hidden camera gag or a cooking show, from shiny floors to a thousand acre ranch in Wyoming or a yacht off Koh Samui in Thailand, German has experienced and directed it.
Calm, cool, collected along with focused, prepared and service with a smile are perfect descriptions of how it is to have German running the set. From EP’s to AD’s to crew, they all admire the respect, sense of camaraderie, dedication and good creative energy he brings to any project.
A bit of history….
German Abarca was born and raised on the east coast in Jersey City, NJ. The son of immigrant parents from Chile. He has always had an affinity with movies and television. As a kid he would “borrow” his dad’s Super 8 camera and make his own Godzilla movies using his pet lizards as stand ins for the monster.
In college German pursued a career in television. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Television Production from Florida International University in Miami. This led to an internship then work at the MTV Latin America studios in South Beach. He would help run the stage as a junior floor manager. There he gained years of experience working on regular VJ stand ups, Unplugged performances, and artist interviews. His work here led him to land his first series, MTV’s The Real World. He would spend the next few years with the franchise. This began his journey in unscripted television.
