The Story

From a fascination at the kitchen table to the Dolby Theatre

I never set out to win an Oscar. I just couldn't leave the materials alone.

As a kid I was always messing around at home with latex and anything else I could get my hands on. My dad was in the fire service & took part in medical training days — I still remember him coming home with a fake fractured femur strapped to his leg. It was so convincing. I was hooked from that moment.

I assumed you had to be in America to do this for a living — until I drove past New College Stamford with my dad, saw the makeup course in the window, and thought: that's exactly what I want to do. I signed up, bought the kit, and that was the beginning of everything.

From there I spent ten years at the world-famous Madame Tussauds in London — intense training in hair work & painting, travelling the world to meet the very people whose faces I was recreating in wax. Then film called, and I never looked back.

“It's the best job I've done. I'm so pleased it's getting the recognition it deserves.”