South Wirral High School, or Eastham Secondary School as it was known in 1979, was such a friendly environment and the teachers were fantastic and supported the students every step of the way. When I was at school my favourite subject was History and I always remember Mr Elston who was a great History teacher.
Around the mid 1980’s I decided that I wanted to do special makeup effects work for films, and in 1988 I got a job in the film industry. I’ve since become quite known for my work on all the Harry Potter films (doing ‘Mad Eye Moody, Voldemort etc) Star Wars films, Captain America, The Avengers, Sleepy Hollow and many more.
I’ve opened up a prosthetic makeup school in Manchester after moving back up from London. I also teach special effects work to the next generation of artists and I’m attached to direct a multi-million dollar movie shooting in the USA in 2018.
When I left school I knew what I wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to make monsters so, to be honest, I never had a plan B.
If I was to give current students one piece of advice it would be to dream big and never give up!