B o a r d
o f   A d v i s o r s

Board Member

Two-time Emmy Award winner and 4-time nominee for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for The Walking Dead, Andy Schoneberg has over 35 years of experience in the motion picture and television industry.

A native of Billings, Montana, Andy studied Education with a focus on Fine Arts. He was a small business owner offering services in graphic design, portraits, and character design & fabrication. His involvement in community theatre provided a backdrop for practicing his passion for theatrical makeup.

Andy earned the “Exceptional Caliber” certification from Dick Smith’s makeup course, coinciding with the move to Los Angeles to pursue his professional career in Hollywood. His diverse skills and positive attitude led to working for all the major iconic creature shops — including Rick Baker’s Cinovation, Stan Winston Studio, Amalgamated Dynamics and KNB EFX. He has contributed as a makeup artist, sculptor, painter, department head and puppeteer to over 100 films and television shows.

A member of IATSE 706 Makeup & Hair and SAG unions, Schoneberg has worked with top directors on major films, not limited to Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Joe Johnston, Frank Durabont, and Steven Spielberg.

Schoneberg is the personal makeup artist to comedian Dana Gould for the current smash hit Hanging with Dr.Z. In his spare time, Andy has painted a recreation of the Mona Lisa, still drawing inspiration from the fine art masters that inspired him as a child. Andy’s involvement as an instructor at CMS is the realization of a lifetime. With patience and encouragement, he advances the development of the next generation of Hollywood makeup artists.

CREDITS

Board Member

Lois Burwell is an iconic Oscar-winning makeup artist, whose career includes Legend, The Princess Bride, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Fifth Element, Saving Private Ryan, The Last Samurai and Lincoln. In 1996, Burwell won the Academy Award for her phenomenal work on the historical war epic, Braveheart, directed by and starring Mel Gibson. Working alongside director Steven Spielberg, she was nominated for her work on Saving Private Ryan, a film that started a longtime collaboration between the two artists. They continued to work together on Catch Me if You Can, War of the Worlds, War Horse, Lincoln, The BFG, and Ready Player One. For Lincoln, Burwell designed the prosthetics transforming actor Daniel Day Lewis into the 16th President of the United States using paintings and photographs from the era to build the impressive look.

Off set, she was elected governor for the Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Then, in 2017, she was elected the first Vice President of the Academy. Lois Burwell is also known for starring as a judge on the SyFy television series Face Off, replacing makeup artist Ve Neill in the show’s seventh season. As of 2022, she has worked on six films that have gone on to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

CREDITS

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Lois’ Professional Website:
www.imdb.com

Board Member

Vincent VanDykeis a prosthetic designer working in the film and television industry as well as owner and creative director of VVDFX, a full service prosthetic makeup effects studio in Los Angeles. Vincent has been nominated for 8 prime time Emmy awards with one win for his work on Star Trek Picard. Primarily working as a sculptor and painter he eventually found his way to one of Hollywood’s leading makeup effects companies, The Burman Studio, where he ultimately became creative director and project supervisor. He was given the core foundation needed to have his own company by owner’s Bari and Tom Burman. Learning the fundamentals of building teams, and orchestrating these teams to get the best work possible under extremely tight deadlines as well as the art of creating photo realistic work for film and television on such shows as Nip/Tuck. With this, He has quickly become one of the top prosthetic designers in the industry- with an extremely hands on approach to building some of the most realistic high quality work in the industry today.

CREDITS

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Vincent’s Professional Website:
www.imdb.com

CREDITS

Board Member

Barry has over 42 years experience in the field of makeup. He got his start in Santa Barbara doing a total of 32 Theatrical stage productions before moving to Los Angeles where he worked at Universal Studios Tour doing a Makeup Show called “Land of a 1000 Faces” where 2 makeup artists would makeup 2 guests from the audience and turn them into Frankenstein and his Bride!

Barry apprenticed with Oscar wining makeup artist John Chambers, who won an Oscar for his makeup’s on The Planet of the Apes Mr. Chambers recommended Mr. Koper to run the Makeup Effects Lab at CBS Studios, after 6 years Mr. Koper became the Head of Makeup at CBS and continued there for a total of 15 years, after which he left to do feature Films, Some of his credits include Addams Family Values, Island of Dr. Moreau, Alien Resurrection, Holloman, Scary Movie 2 & 3, Bubble Boy, Syriana, Departed, Indiana Jones 4, Coach Carter, Dinner for Schmucks, We Bought a Zoo, X Men First Class, Thor and Michael Jackson’s This is it He is best known for his very natural prosthetic work on Tim Allen in all 3 Disney’s Santa Clause Movies turning Tim into Santa! Mr. Koper has been nominated for the Emmy a total of 5 times and has won twice. Barry was also the creator of the column “Out of the Kit” for Makeup Artist Magazine, which he wrote for over 10 years.

CREDITS

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Barry’s Professional Website:
www.imdb.com

Board Member

Lino Stavole works in the middle of murk, magic, monsters, and mathematical madness. Lino creates things using technology. He works as a project supervisor at Spectral Motion and oversees their digital manufacturing. Every day he produces amazing things in concert with groups of talented artists.

He specializes in the collaboration between art and new technology and is knowledgeable in a myriad of different 3d printing and additive manufacturing techniques and methods. Lino has constructed advanced 3d scanning systems in cooperation with the University of Kentucky’s Center for Visualization & Virtual Environments.

He has spoken at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers regarding adopting 3D technologies in the art and entertainment arenas. His goal is to advance the way we create by using innovative fabrication methods (and even developing some new ones).

CREDITS

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Lino’s Professional Website:
www.behold3d.me

Board Member

Michael Deak is a highly experienced 39-year veteran of the motion picture and television industry. Starting out as a Production Assistant at Roger Corman’s New World Studios, he was quickly offered the opportunity to work as an intern for the make-up effects team on George Romero’s horror classic, DAY OF THE DEAD. Next, Mike joined the team at John Beuchler’s MMI and was soon promoted to on-set FX Supervisor. While at MMI, Michal enjoyed a three-year stint at Empire Studios Productions in Rome, Italy plying his skills and experience on popular cult favorites such as FROM BEYOND with acclaimed director, Stuart Gordon.

In the years following, Michael was shop/location supervisor for world-renown creature effects creators Screaming Mad George, Steve Wang, and KNB Effects. He also ran Alchemy FX Studios, an in-house effects company for Full Moon Pictures, owned and operated by filmmaker Charlie Band.

During his lengthy career, Michael has played an integral part of the special effects process on projects ranging from extremely low budget genre films to major box office hits. He has worked alongside A-list directors such as Michael Bay, Tony Scott, and Wolfgang Petersen.

In addition to his effects supervision background, Michael acted in numerous movie projects as a specialty suit performer. His acting credits include TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE (mummy in “Lot 249” and the gargoyle in “Lover’s Vow”), SPECIES, POWER RANGER TURBO (Maligore), CELLAR DWELLER, LITTLE NICKY (Gary the Bigfoot), WEREWOLF WOMAN OF THE SS, as well as a slew of creature characters for television that include MONSTERS, WEIRD SCIENCE, and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.

Michael’s other credits include Second Unit Director, Miniature Effects Producer/Director, Puppeteer, voice-over talent, and on-screen actor. He is currently involved as a producer on a web series pilot.

CREDITS

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Michael’s Professional Website:
www.imdb.com

Board Member

Benson is a partner at Satnick Lau LLP in Los Angeles, California, where he focuses his practice on cannabis law, litigation, serving cannabis businesses and investors throughout Los Angeles. He also represents cultivators, distributors, manufacturers, retailers, testing laboratories, and other individuals in the cannabis industry on matters involving business litigation, intellectual property rights, commercial landlord/tenant disputes, municipal disputes, mergers and acquisitions, state and local licensing, and regulatory compliance.

Before starting his firm, Benson began his legal career specializing in business litigation, corporate matters, and entertainment law. Benson has represented numerous award winning producers, film financiers, distributors, sales agents, and talent agencies in entertainment transactions and litigation matters pending before IFTA, state court and federal court. Benson has provided strategic counsel on a wide variety of matters ranging from idea theft, defamation, royalty disputes, copyright infringement, rights of publicity and privacy, and business torts.

In addition to running his law practice, Mr. Lau stays involved in his community through participation in professional organizations, including, providing pro bono legal assistance to individuals at risk of deportation through Loyola Law School’s Removal Defense Corps. In June 2020, Benson was first selected to the Southern California Rising Stars list. He was selected again in 2021 and 2022.