Nick Dudman — Costume & Make-Up | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

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.

Since then he has supervised the creatures / makeup effects departments on a series of blockbusters including Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns.

Having completed the ten-year challenge of the Harry Potter franchise, Nick is looking for yet more creative challenges and expanding his role to make most use of his unique experience.

His latest work includes Paddington and all three seasons of Penny Dreadful, Showtime’s gothic horror series, which have garnered two BAFTA Craft award nominations for Best Makeup with a win for season one, three EMMY Nominations, one for each season, and two Hollywood Guild of Makeup Artists and Hairdressers nominations for Best Special Effects Makeup.

He has also supervised the installation of creatures at The Making of Harry Potter Tour at Warner Bros Leavesden Studios. The Creature Shop section of the tour houses a permanent display of the work created by Nick and his teams over the entire Harry Potter series.

His latest finished project is as the Makeup Effects Designer on Seasons One and Two of Legendary’s “Carnival Row”and as Makeup Effects Designer on Seasons One and Two of Sony’s “The Wheel of Time”.

In 2013 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Arts University, Bournemouth, and in 2022, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bolton.