Ellen Poon

Ellen Poon is a world renown expert in the highly creative and technical field of visual effects and animation for over 30 years. She has collaborated with many acclaimed and award wining directors such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Frank Darabont, Christopher Nolan, Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Bryon Howard, Ron Clements and John Musker. Ellen’s career started in London where she joined MPC in 1986. She was a founding member of its Computer Graphics department and developed many of the technologies that were used for the many state-the-art commercial and TV productions at MPC. In 1990, whilst working for Rushes Post Production, she created the ground breaking advertising campaign where a 3 month old baby girl was made to talk like an adult. The commercial was for the UK’s Census Bureau and received critical acclaim for its creativity and immaculate execution. Ellen appeared in the Tomorrow’s World TV program where it was the first time UK showcased such computer graphics technology. Her work proceeded many of the talking animals films and commercials that we see today. Ellen was later asked to join George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) in 1991, the film industry's prestigious production house for high-quality cutting edge visual effects and animation for the motion picture industry. Ellen worked there for 11 years and was the first ever female to be made Visual Effects Supervisor. Ellen’s realization of the miracles in "The Green Mile", creatures in “Star Wars Episode 1” and the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" are just some of her many on-screen accomplishments. Ellen however has a passion for Chinese film projects whilst working in Hollywood. Her involvement came when she worked with premiere mainland Chinese Director Zhang Yimou on “Hero”. The film has earned many praises, some of which include its uniquely stunning visual style and its clever use of visual effects in a period Chinese film. It set the gold standard for this genre for Asian films still to this day. The film “Hero” won her the Best Visual Effects at the 2003 Hong Kong Film Awards. In 2014, Ellen was asked to be the Visual Effect producer for the big budget film “Monster Hunt” directed by Dreamworks' veteran Raman Hui. A first of its kind in China where CG creatures, designed for the Chinese audiences, were to be combined with live action, supported by a great story. It was a huge success and became the highest grossing film of all time in China in 2015. Subsequently the film created a brand for itself where the creatures are household names. Ellen earned her second Hong Kong Film Awards in 2016 for Best Visual Effects. Ellen continued to work on Monster Hunt 2 as Visual Effects Supervisor and Visual Effects Producer which was released worldwide in February 2018. It broke the box office record for Chinese film for the opening weekend. It continues to be one of the most successful IP franchise for China. In a remarkable step, Ellen’s love for animation brought her back to Disney as an artist in the area of lighting and compositing. Ellen insists that while she enjoys being a producer and supervisor, she equally enjoys being an artist where she can be hands-on to create some of the stunning imageries that we see on the big screen. Her work on “Frozen”, “Zootopia” (both won an Academy Award for Best Animation) and most recently “Moana”, “Wreck It Ralph 2” and the tobe-released “Raya and the Last Dragon” are proofs that Ellen is a very versatile artist. In 2021, Ellen serves as VFX supervisor for Cinesite on Disney’s “Iwaju”. It is an animated series based on an authentic African story told by Nigerian Film maker Ziki Nelson. Ellen brings to her projects a unique combination of inspiration, meticulous technical expertise and fiscal acumen enhanced by a refined creative aesthetic across different cultures!