Nick Dudman

Nick Dudman and his team created the makeup effects and the magical animatronic creatures ( and the CG scanning models ) in all of the Harry Potter films, garnering BAFTA nominations for the first four in the series, and also for the seventh. The final installment, “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows-Part 2” earned him an Oscar nomination for best makeup as well as another BAFTA nomination.

In 2006 Nick Dudman was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2007 he was presented with the Canadian Genie Award for Special Achievement in Makeup for Beowulf and Grendel.

Dudman got his start in films working on the Jedi master Yoda, as a trainee to British makeup artist Stuart Freeborn, on the second in the Star Wars series – The Empire Strikes Back.

After apprenticing with Freeborn for four years on films such as Superman II and Top Secret!, Dudman was asked to head up the English makeup prosthetics shop for Ridley Scott’s Legend, applying Tim Curry’s “Darkness” makeup amongst others. Subsequently, he has worked on Mona Lisa, High Spirits, Willow, Interview With the Vampire, Batman (creating Jack Nicholson’s Joker) and Judge Dredd among many others.

In 1995, his career path widened into animatronics and large scale creature effects when he was asked to oversee the creature department for the Luc Besson film The Fifth Element, for which he won a BAFTA for best Visual Effects.