Make-up Artists 2019

Love Larson is one of the best swedish make-up designer and prosthetic make-up artists. He has worked professionally since the early 2000´s on many films and tv-series including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Skyfall.  Together with his wife Eva von Bahr he runs The Makeup Designers Stockholm AB  that specialize in taking on complete projects where they do both make-up, hair and prosthetic design. They have worked on more than 70 feature films, 20 tv series and at least 250 commercials all around Scandinavia, Prague, Budapest, Morroco, South Korea, London, Scotland, Hong Kong and Hollywood. They have two Oscar® nominations for best makeup and Hairstyling, for The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Dissapeared, and 2016 for A Man Called Ove. In 2013 they receieved the Club 100 award, the oldest award in swedish television, for their work on Real Humans.

After graduating Tokyo University of the Arts and entering the world of special effect make-up, Jiro established JUR Co., Ltd. Currently, he works not only as a special effects make-up artist but also as a creative director in film, drama, TVCM and other fields. His power of expression and solid techniques are highly praised by people in Japan and overseas. Jiro is attracting attention as a reformer of facepaint, SFX make-up and art. He became a certified champion after winning two championships at TV TOKYO and was selected as one of the "Make-up Around the World: The Global Family of Artists" on the Make-up Artist Magazine. He creates artwork with advanced painting techniques and attracting the world with his power of ideas and high-quality works. In 2017, he published his very first art book „Amazing JIRO - SPECIAL MAKEUP".

Mimi Choi is a Vancouver-based professional make-up artist renowned for her unique artistic style.  Since graduating from Blanche Macdonald Centre in 2014, her pioneering illusionary work has garnered international attention and a large following on social media (@mimles).  Mimi was born in Macau, known for its distinct European and Chinese influences. Mimi’s inspiration stems from various sources.  This includes patterns and textures from her surroundings, photoshopped digital art, and surreal paintings from artists such as Salvador Dali.  In addition, Mimi uses her bouts of sleep paralysis, in which she experiences vivid hallucinations, to fuel her imagination.  Mimi instructs at Blanche Macdonald and leads various masterclasses where she demonstrates her iconic looks.  She also freelances as artistic director for various campaigns. Her CV includes collaborations with brands such as UNICEF, Samsung, Food Network and Warner Brothers to name a few. 

Matt Valentine is a self taught artist known for his hyper-stylized conceptual designs. Matt has a reputation of interjecting subliminal, abstract, and anthropomorphic esoteric symbolism into each piece he creates. He also teaches makeup SFX  workshops worldwide, spreading his unique techniques to artists abound and giving back to the community. To this day, the name Matt Valentine is more widely known as the creator of the infamous Tim Burton-inspired Ice Cream Clown created on Face Off Season 2. He has recently worked for Glenn Hetrick ( The Hunger Games, Star Trek Discovery and others) and creature designer Neville Page (Avatar and Prometheus). Matt is the current and series finale champion of Syfy’s hit series Face Off Battle Royale. He currently operates his FX studio, Global Fear Enterprises – a studio that specializes in premium FX costumes, custom creations, make-ups, conceptual and graphic design.

Alisson Rogrigues is graduated in Performing Arts and specializing in musical theater. Today with 13 years of career in make-up, he honored at the largest make-up congress in Brazil, The Makeup Experience. He was the head of make-up for Hopi Hari Park for 4 years. Winner of the Avon Make-up Award in the year 2016 at  the category of performing arts. Has been also the semi-finalist of the International Make-up FACE AWARDS. He has signed the cover and made a special editorial for the two biggest make-up magazines in Brazil: Professional Makeup and HM. He also directed and made up shows and has  worked in major events and international trade fairs. Currently, he is a make-up artist at Domingão do Faustão (TV Globo). He has lectured at many courses and workshops.

Born in Cologne, Elke Kim is an internationally exhibiting painter and active make-up artist. She trained at the Cologne Opera and worked on productions for Peter Stein, Wim Wenders, Luc Bondy and Robert Wilson at the Schaubühne in Berlin. For more than 30 years, she has been creating hair and make-up for TV, films and photo productions. As a make-up coach, she trains make-up artists. National and international stars such as Tom Hanks, Ralf Möller, Mark Keller, Jenke von Wilmsdorff and many others had their make-up done in her studio at Cologne's Rheinauhafen. Her philosophy is: See your face as a beautiful piece of landscape and be inspired by what you see.

Hair & Make-up Designer Bernard Floch is based in Brussels and Paris and works worldwide. He has close to thirty years’ experience of make-up and prosthetics work on features and television, gained not only in his native France but also from working all over Europe, Asia and North America. He’s also worked extensively in the Opera´s world in such houses like Teatro alla Scala Milano, Theatre du Chatelet Paris, De Munt Royal Opera House Brussels and Ahmanson Theater Los Angeles. He has also worked on fashion shows with designers like Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana and Givenchy.

Guido Paefgen was born and raised in the Westerwald region. There he was also co-founder of his first amateur theatre group. The training as a make-up artist took place at the Make-up Artist School Rhineland-Palatinate and at the Kiel Opera. After his first engagement in Kiel, he returned to Mainz, then to Koblenz as deputy chief make-up artist. Finally, he returned to the Mainz State Theatre, where he has been chief make-up artist since 2004. In addition to this activity, he accompanies many other projects for television productions and photographers and regularly conducts workshops at home and abroad. His great passion is and remains theatre, both as a make-up artist as well as a director and set designer in the independent scene. Guido Paefgen received the Golden Mask for Make-up Artists in 2017.

 Amber left a successful career in media as a graphic designer when she discovered a passion for special effects. In 2016 she attended both of the Gorton Studios “Creative & Character Make-Up” and “Make Up Effects and Prosthetics Creation” courses. In 2017 Amber moved to the UK to work on a freelance basis. She gained experience creating silicone prosthetics, teaching courses and demonstrating make-up effects at The Prosthetics Event. She is now working under contract for MillenniumFX, where her credits as a Workshop Technician include Doctor Who, The Tracey Ullman Show, Upstart Crow, and the latest Kenneth Branagh film All Is True.

Paul Merchant has worked in all disciplines of the make-up industry, from beauty to fashion, body painting to editorial and even theatrical. As a self-taught artist, he has developed his own style of working. “I love to play around with products and find different and interesting ways of using them, other than their intended purpose.” His work includes London Fashion Week, Britain & Irelands Next Top Model Live, X Factor, various editorial campaigns, tutorial videos and fashion shows. His work has been featured in magazines such as Face On, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Vogue. In 2016, he took the role as Kryolan’s Global Head of Make-up and therefore, he leads the creative side of all Kryolan campaigns. He headed the renown calendar campaigns for the past three years and will continue to inject his creative influence over all international campaigns.

Danny Defreitas is a professional Make-up Artist and Hair Stylist who has worked in the industry for 10+ years that spans many sectors which include celebrities, film, theatre and fashion. He is also a Digital content creator who covers both video and stills through his main platform on Instagram @dannydefreitas where he is about ‘About all things beauty’ and touches lifestyle and fashion also. His key message is Make-up is genderless and is for anyone and everyone and he always want his content to be fun along with educational. It’s about spreading positivity and a feeling of inclusion. He has worked with some of the leading global beauty brands in the current market including Primark, Ardell, NYX Cosmetics, Garnier, Urban Decay, By Terry along with clients such as Vogue.com, Wonderland Magazine, Rihanna For River Island, Samsung, Rita Ora, Jess Glynne & Karlie Kloss to name a few.

Ina Chochol's path to special effects led her through anthropology and painting. She completed her training in the studio of Neill Gorton in Great Britain. During a detour into the field of bodypainting, she took part in the World Championship as a finalist. Finally, she specialised in the production of silicone prosthetics and body parts for use in various TV and film productions. Her long-standing work for television focuses on character design and the alienation of natural persons, such as for Team Wallraff, Stern TV, RTL Extra or Galileo, as well as the transformation into historical characters for documentaries like Sketch History or Pussy Terror TV. A matter close to her heart was the exhibition "At a second glance" of the “Herzwerk” initiative of the DRK/Jenny Jürgens Foundation against poverty amongst the elderly, for which she caused well-known faces to age.

Friedrich-Daniel Schlemme lives and works as a freelance artist in Berlin. From 1987 to 1989, he studied visual communication and sculpture as well as free painting at the HDK Berlin. He participated in several stone sculpting workshops under the direction of Y. Hashimoto and was a master student of Professor Stelzmann at the HDK Berlin in 1997. Since 2002, he has also been teaching at the Make-up Art School Hasso von Hugo in Berlin, where he is Head of Drawing, Modelling, Theatre Make-up and Colour Design. His works have been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions in galleries and art houses at home and abroad. For his work, amongst others, he was awarded the art prize of the city of Limburg and the art prize of the city of Madrid.

With his knowledge and skills, Michael Loncin is everywhere, where special effects are in demand. He handles tricky tasks for movies such as The Shadow Within as well as for performances at the Brussels Opera and at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. For a long time, he was responsible for the SFX area of the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival.  He works internationally as lecturer for renowned make-up schools, theatres and TV studios. In Brussels, he opened the first training centre for special effects in Belgium and trains students in this specialist area.

Annette von Hugo began her professional career as a hairdresser. Her interest in imparting knowledge led her to her studies and to her future profession as a student teacher. Inspired by her previous profession as a hairdresser and her marriage to the well-known make-up artist Hasso von Hugo, she opened the make-up school Hasso von Hugo with her husband in 1990. There she worked as a lecturer and managing director until October 2018. During her school career, she accompanied various film projects as a supervisor.

Thomas Hilckmann comes from the Westerwald region. Initially, he trained as a hairdresser and master hairdresser. After a one-year internship with the mask department at the City Theatre Koblenz during the 2006/07 season, he began his training as a make-up artist at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (German Opera on the Rhine) in Düsseldorf/Duisburg. He then worked there as a make-up artist until 2016. For the 2016/17 season, he changed to the State Theatre Mainz, where he has been deputy chief make-up artist since 2017. He also works as a freelancer for SWR television and for the makeup for the promotion musical ''We Will Rock You'', amongst others.

Jasmin Unckrich grew up in Palatinate, where she also completed her training as a hairdresser. After her further training as a master hairdresser, she worked on an independent basis and gained her first experience as a make-up artist. After a one-year internship at the State Theatre Mainz, she completed her training there. During this time, she successfully participated in two German Championships for Make-up Artists in Training. In 2018, Jasmin Unckrich finished her education and has been engaged at the State Theatre Mainz ever since. For several years, during the summer, she has been working as a make-up artist at the Nibelungen Festival in Worms.

Johanna Prange was born in Munich and grew up there. She also completed her hairdressing apprenticeship in Munich and obtained her master's certificate. Subsequently, she attended a make-up artist school and finally began her training at the Mainz State Theatre in 2009. In 2012, she won the Baden-Baden Award as the best young make-up artist. Since 2012, she has been a member of the Mainz State Theatre. In addition to this activity, she also works as a make-up artist for various independent productions.

Patricia Starke grew up in Baden-Baden, where she also finished her hairdresser training. Following this, she completed her training as a make-up artist at the Theatre Baden-Baden. Subsequent stations as make-up artist were the Theatre Heilbronn and the Schauspielhaus Hamburg. She also worked as workshop manager and deputy chief make-up artist for the "Phantom of the Opera" in Hamburg. During her time in Hamburg, Patricia Starke qualified as a master hairdresser and worked freelance for RTL and Premiere, amongst others. She has been a permanent member of the Mainz State Theatre since 2001. She regularly works for SWR, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Nibelungen Festival in Worms.