Gino Acevedo

Gino Acevedo was born in Phoenix, Arizona and began his career at 18 years old at a Halloween Company called Imagineering creating masks and makeup kits for the general public. In his early 20s he moved to Los Angeles to begin his long career of working on some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters for over 10 years. Some of his past film credits include Nightmare on Elm St 5, Point Break, Alien 3, Death Becomes Her, Wold, Demolition Man, Independence Day, Godzilla 1998, and at Weta Workshop and Weta FX, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit, Avatar, Planet of the Apes trilogy to name a few.

In 1988, Makeup and Creature Effects Art Director Gino Acevedo was asked by Richard Taylor to join Weta Workshop to supervise the special makeup effects and color designs of the creatures for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Trilogy. During the filming of The Two Towers, Gino was approached by Weta FX's Visual Effects Supervisor, Joe Letteri, who was intrigued by the way Gino had created the realistic skin coloration of a physical silicone puppet of the Dead Boromir character. Joe then asked Gino if he would be interested in texture painting on Gollum. Although he saw himself as computer illiterate, Gino grasped at the new digital challenges and becoming the new Creative Art Director of Weta FX for over 15 years.

Gino has recently been asked to go back to his roots of practical makeup fx to look after the design of the makeup fx on the new upcoming feature, The Hunt for Gollum. He can be found on Facebook and Instagram.

Interview recorded on 2025-12-20.