Narwhal Studios - CEO / Creative Director

Starting & Scaling Narwhal

Building a studio from two people into a 100+ artist team while staying hands-on as a creative and leader.

I co-founded Narwhal Studios with Safari Sosebee in 2015, starting as a two-person team while balancing building the business and staying hands-on creatively. From the beginning, our goal was to help directors and designers explore shots and worlds in development using game engines—so creative and budget decisions could be made earlier and carry through production and VFX.

Over time, I helped grow the studio to 100+ artists working across film, TV, animation, and interactive. What started as immersive and VR work (originally under Happy Mushroom) evolved into VFX and virtual production, with The Mandalorian marking a major turning point. We went on to support multiple seasons and projects across major studios before the company was acquired, and I stepped away in 2024.

My Role: CEO, Creative Director & Producer

Building teams, workflows, and partnerships to turn real-time design into a scalable production pipeline.

As CEO, Creative Director, and Producer, my role sat at the intersection of creative, production, and business. I focused on building teams, shaping workflows, and partnering closely with directors, production designers, and studios to make the work both ambitious and executable.

A big part of that was defining and scaling our Virtual Art Department (VAD) approach - bringing together artists from film, VFX, and games, and training them to work in real-time. This allowed projects to move from early design through production and final delivery with more alignment and flexibility.

Alongside the creative work, I led hiring, budgets, partnerships, and overall production strategy - helping scale the studio to ~150 people, sell the company in 2022, and transition out in 2024.