The Art of Makeup School had the great pleasure of welcoming Jeff Dawn, Academy Award Winner for Best Make-Up on Terminator 2. The 40 year makeup veteran who is currently on break after department heading Hawaii Five-0 for the last 9 years, shared his career with us. He also covered topics such as how to promote yourself, how to get and keep a job, what department heads look for from their crew, budgets, script breakdowns, keeping continuity, set etiquette, makeup tips, favorite products and so much more!  He answered questions from our students as well as those on Zoom and Instagram Live.

It was fun to see the two 4’x6′ boards Jeff brought that were covered in snapshots from his many years on sets.  After shooting 19 films with Arnold Schwarzenegger, there were lots of pictures of him in the incredible makeup Jeff created, Leonard Nimoy and other Star Trek actors he worked on, and many, many others.

Jeff Dawn is a third generation makeup artist.  His grandfather Jack Dawn was the Director of Makeup at MGM studios for 15 years.  His father was also a makeup artist for 35 years.  He is a member of IATSE Local 706 for 36 years, having worked on over 300 television episodes and department headed over 40 films.  Some of his other TV credits include Lost and Leverage, and some of his film credits include Star Trek IV and V, Predator, Terminator 1, 2 & 3, Total Recall, and Collateral Damage.  He is known for his sci-fi special effects makeup work, and has been nominated 6 times by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. You can see more of his credits here 

Jeff has done many interviews educating and helping other makeup artists and entertaining fans about his process, and can be found on podcasts and Youtube.  Thank you Jeff for sharing your knowledge and inspiring so many!

Here is a good interview with Young Han while working on Hawaii Five-0