Our Team
John Dower
*Co-Founder
John Dower is a Director with over 25 year’s experience in Film, Television and Video Games. He started out as an actor himself, and studied at Goldsmith's College, The Northern Film School in Leeds and the Polish National Film School in Lodz.
Since graduating, John has directed many award-winning short films which have screened at over 70 film festivals worldwide. His Television Drama credits include “Silent Witness”, "Wolfblood", "Eastenders" and "Casualty" for the BBC.
Bringing a film maker's sensibility into video games, John has directed in Motion Capture studios in the UK and USA, working in Animation and Voice on several video games titles including the Microsoft/Lionhead "Milo & Kate" project, the James Bond video game, "007 legends" with Activision/Eurocom, "Risen 3" for Piranha Bytes, a Game yet to be announced for Take-Two Interactive and is currently Cinematics Director on new titles for Saber Interactive.
John teaches on the Digital Animation course at Filmakademie Ludwigsburg, the Games Design and Development course at the National Film School (NFTS), Acting for the screen at East 15 Acting School, Drama Studio London & ALRA and Film Making at MET Film School. His classes and workshops for The Mocap Vaults have taken him to Canada, Mexico, Sweden & USA.
Oliver Hollis-Leick
*Co-Founder
Oliver is a long standing veteran in the performance capture world with eighteen years experience on over one hundred video game and movie titles.
After five years in the mocap industry, Oliver decided to study acting at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 2006-09. After graduating, he continued his work in the ever expanding world of performance capture.
His roles include Iron Man, Ant Man, Agent 47, The Hulk, Master Chief, Spiderman, James Bond and many more. He has worked at studios in the UK, USA, Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Russia for clients that include Microsoft, Sony, Activision, Avalanche, Supermassive Games, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, Guerilla, and numerous other esteemed publishers and developers.
Oliver is now the Creative Director at Saber Interactive Studios and co-wrote the recent smash hit World War Z the Video Game, along with Craig Sherman.
Richard “Mocapman” Dorton
*Head of US Operations
“If you’ve played a video game, you’ve probably killed me.”
Richard Dorton aka Mocapman, is a veteran performance capture actor, director, stunt coordinator, producer, movement consultant instructor and casting director with over 100 video game credits to his name.
With 22 years of experience in motion & performance capture under his belt, Richard has been in the middle of the ever-changing technology and processes used in today’s world of motion capture.
Including a diverse set of skills in acting, stunts, movement, weapons, and dance, Richard has brought to life iconic video game characters like Darth Vader, Master Chief, Nathan Drake, Peter Venkman and creatures from games like Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Ghostbusters and many more.
He is known for cinematic performance captures for feature films include Jack the Giant Killer, Spiderman, Tron and most recently, as “Kevin”, The Left head of King Ghidorah from Godzilla: King of the Monsters!
Richard also runs the U.S. division of The Mocap Vaults, a school for training actors who want to pursue a career in performance and motion capture.
Twitter & Instagram - @richarddorton
Website – www.mocapman.com
IMDB - https://www.imdb.me/richarddorton
Gareth Taylor
*Head of Movement
Gareth Taylor is a Lecoq trained movement specialist, professional freelance actor, movement director and teacher. Since graduating from Guildford School of Acting he has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Red Shift, Chichester Festival Theatre, BAC and on various #1 and mid scale tours.
Gareth started out as a professional gymnast. It was this interest in human physiology that lead him to the prestigious physical theatre school Jacques Lecoq in Paris.
Gareth has worked with Punchdrunk, Slung Low, Dancing Brick, Tongue Tied and curious directive, of which he is a Creative Associate.
As a professional performance capture artist for film and video games, Gareth has become renowned for his ability to develop characters through movement. Recent movie work includes Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, John Carter of Mars and Total Recall. He has worked on over 30 games including the Harry Potter computer game series playing a whole host of favourites from Voldemort to Dobby.
Gareth specialises in Animal Studies, Storytelling, Pure Movement and Neutral Mask.
Pascal Langdale
* Head of Canadian Operations
Pascal Langdale is an actor known for his reliable versatility across multiple media. He has worked in TV, Film, Video Game and Voice. He is a movement specialist with an expertise in nonverbal behavior, and brings his characters to life through voice, body and psychology - all adjusted to the demands of the medium.
Recent work includes Far Cry 6 (complex Body doubling) and the voice of Bagley in Watch Dogs: Legion for which he was nominated for a Canadian Game Award. This also saw him mocap the performances for many of the NPC’s, and was movement choreographer, specialising in gesture and physicality. Once privately described by a colleague as “The Swiss Army Knife” of Motion Capture acting, Pascal has worked on numerous video games since his first role as Ethan Mars in Heavy Rain, in Voice, Mocap and Performance capture, Actor performance matching, reverse ADR, Facial Capture Operation and demo production.
Pascal co-wrote "Performing for Motion Capture" for Bloomsbury Methuen, with Director and Co-founder of The Mocap Vaults, John Dower. This is the world's first in depth resource for the education of the next generation of actors facing an increasing use of digital production not only drawing on the combined experience of the MCV teachers, but also conducting interviews with over twenty experts in all stages of the pipeline.
A born Londoner, Pascal is a graduate of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 3 year acting course, who made Toronto his home in 2011. He has credits in supporting roles in more than 100 TV, film roles, in the past decade in Canada, these include Killjoys, Bitten, Suits, and the recent Randal Okita movie, "See for Me".
Pascal is an active mentor and instructor in “Embodied Acting”, using Laban Technique and his own Psycho-Physical technique, that draws on nonverbal behavior studies. He does this through his company Collective Intent, and as head of the Canadian branch of The Mocap Vaults
He has recently completed Mocap and Procedural Behavior Library creation for an unannounced project.
Paul-William Mawhinney
*Staff Tutor, UK
Paul-William Mawhinney is a freelance creative professional with over 22 years of experience as an Actor, Voiceover Artist, Performance Coach, Game Narrative Designer and Motion Capture Assistant Director.
A graduate of the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA, Sydney), he moved to London in 2015, which is also when he crossed paths with John Dower and Oliver Hollis-Leick at the Mocap Vaults’ “Intro to Mocap.” Since beginning his training with The Mocap Vaults he has worked on dozens of motion capture projects. His credits include work in: films, animations, VR, e-learning and video games, ranging from smaller independent projects all the way through to many AAA titles.
As a performance coach and tutor, he has taught at some of the world’s most prestigious drama training institutions, including: Germany’s Filmakademie, Drama Studio London, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and is currently the head of the Acting for Digital Media MA/MFA course at East 15 Acting School.
Nicklas Hansson
* Head of Swedish Operations
Nicklas Hansson is a highly experienced motion capture performer, stuntman and actor with a diverse background in both musical theater, martial arts and parkour as well as being a former military drill sergeant.
Having worked in the industry for nearly 15 years, not only has Nicklas done motion capture for countless games, trailers and tv shows, he also did stunts for blockbuster hollywood productions such as Game of Thrones, Transformers and Dumbo and has received two SAG awards for best stunt ensemble in a comedy or drama series.
With the versatility of being both a stunt performer and actor, Nicklas quickly started adding credits to his mocap resume, among them the Battlefield and Wolfenstein franchises, Horizon: Forbidden West, Cyberpunk 2077, Assassins Creed: Valhalla, Call of Duty: Vanguard and many many more.
Marc Morisseau
*CQB Tactics, USA
Marc has been training with modern firearms since 2007. He has facilitated training programs with Army Special Forces, SWAT and Air Force personnel. Close Quarter Battle and Modern defense tactics make up the foundation of his curriculum for the CQB Rifle courses.
A career in large franchise shooter games (TitanFall, Call of Duty, Battlefield) has exposed him toadvanced concepts and training. Marc has brought his experiences working with these skills as well as performing them into a workshop designed to help performers build skills to take their military action performance to the next level.
Marc started his career in the entertainment industry in 2011 working as a Mocap artist on Resident Evil 6. His experience on-set facilitated moves to facial capture supervisor, stage manager and mocap supervisor across games like TitanFall, Wolfenstein, Battlefield 4, Shadow of Mordor, Until Dawn, Mad Max and Call of Duty titles. He later moved to films, specializing in Previz using mocap and game engines. He worked mocap previz and VFX on Thor 2, Star Trek Into Darkness, Deadpool, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Warcraft, Mazerunner, Ant-Man, X-Men:DOFP and Spiderman Homecoming to name a few. After finishing Call of Duty Modern Warfare under Activision, he has joined James Cameron's AVATAR sequel films.
America Young
*Staff Tutor, USA
America Young is currently working in Film, TV, Animation and Video Games, as a Director, stunt coordinator and stunt woman. To date, she has directed for Network TV, two features, 13 shorts and four digital series to name a few.
She has stunt coordinated on projects for Warner Bros, Netflix, Lifetime and Cannal Plus. And worked on 65 video games.
Having stunt coordinated for years, America transitioned to directing seven years ago upon completion of the Warner Bros directing program. While having a solid foundation in action, she is also known for her ability to bring out the best performances in actors, both drama and comedy, while translating subtle and rich story points visually on screen. The projects she has helmed have a wide range from a drag queen comedy to sci-fi action to fantasy action to coming of age drama to exploring domestic violence in a superhero universe.
Her first feature is “The Concessionaires Must Die!!” and she is wrapping up post on her second feature, “Back to Lyla”. TV drama includes - “Whatta Lark” (Amazon) & “Protectress”. She was also the first female director of a vertical slice for a major video game AAA franchise. (Not yet announced)
America was pivotal in the rebranding of Barbie with the Barbie Vlog in 2015 and directed the critically acclaimed season of the Barbie motion capture animated series for Mattel.
She is a proud founder of The Chimaera Project, a non-profit that gives opportunities to women in the film & media arts (www.chimaeraproject.org).
When America’s not kicking the crap out of Super-Heroes that support the Superhuman Registration Act, jumping off buildings, teaching actors how to fight or setting herself on fire, she enjoys telling stories, sipping herbal tea and sharpening her pair of Sai… and giving her wisdom to the students of The Mocap Vaults!
Thekla Hutyrova
*Staff Tutor, USA
Thekla Hutyrova has been working in the film industry since 2015. She has worked on movies including Alita battle Angel, Logan, and Pacific Rim 2, as well as numerous TV shows.
Over half of her body of work is in Motion Capture, between the features and video games among the most notable being God of War 2 and 3, Mortal Kombat 11, Last of Us 2, and Spider-Man.
Thekla’s background in martial arts and tricking and tumbling has leant itself beautifully to her roles as superhero’s and super hero-like characters in Film, TV and movies. She has 2 world titles in sport karate. She started with Tae Kwon Do earning her 2nd degree black belt at age 17 from Master Carmichael Simon. Since then, she’s trained in numerous other martial arts styles including boxing, JKD, Judo, and firearms and weapons handling.
With her vast set of advanced skills in a variety of weapons including Bo Staff, Nunchucks, and swords, she has been training and teaching privately since the age of 14 and is in high demand for her expertise.
Michelle Lee
* Staff Tutor, USA
Michelle Lee has appeared in many films and television series such as Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Marvel's Venom, Mortal Kombat Legacy and video games like Sony's Spiderman 4 and Capcom's Resident Evil 6, to name just a few.
Michelle's ability to show strength through both acting and physicality has been recognized with a SAG Nomination for Best Ensemble Cast and on the cover of Inside Kung Fu Magazine. Michelle has a black belt in Wushu and a BA in Economics specializing in Computer Programming from UCLA.
One of the most prolific performers in the Los Angeles mocap scene, Michelle has a broad understanding of the demands of performance capture and has worked in every field within the mocap industry, taking on roles in many iconic video game titles including the recent Uncharted: Lost Legacy, The Last of Us: Left Behind and Resident Evil 6.
Thomas Garner
*Staff Tutor, USA
Thomas Garner is an Actor for Stage, Television, Film and Voice-Overs. He is also a Writer, Director, Teacher and Coach who has been working in Los Angeles for over 30 years after earning his Theatre Degree in Maryland.
Film credits include Contact, Get Smart and Ouija Summoning. Television credits include Six Feet Under, Shark, Terminator and Criminal Minds to name a few.
His first introduction to Motion Capture was The Shield (early 2000s opposite Richard Dorton) playing multiple Characters (and Genders) for the Video Game’s Cinematics.
Soon after, he started to Mentor, Teach and Coach other Actors as he developed his uniquely ground-breaking Script Analysis Technique that focuses on story, speed and accuracy.
In 2016 he began working with Richard Dorton again and The Mocap Vaults. After assisting in the Intro Classes and contributing his Acting Technique, the relationship quickly grew into sharing the training duties with Richard in the Cinematics Classes.
Darren Bailey
*Staff Tutor, USA
Darren Bailey is a lifelong actor with a BA in Theatre from Miami University, where he also extensively studied singing, film, art, and playwriting. In 2010, he co-founded the viral martial arts team Thousand Pounds Action Company, best known for their Street Fighter and Naruto fan films, and whose members are now responsible for the action design in Marvel and Star Wars films, among others. That same year, Darren began working as a stunt performer and then as a stunt coordinator in 2013. He was the membership director and ensemble actor in the LA-based theatre company Son of Semele before it closed in 2021. He is also a prolific writer, filmmaker, and acting coach who completed The Mocap Vaults curriculum in 2018 and began regularly volunteering as Richard Dorton’s assistant shortly thereafter. Additionally, he has worked full-time as support staff in the visual effects industry for the past decade on the highest grossing films of all time.
Some of his motion capture credits include Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, The Elder Scrolls Online, and the music video “Holiday” for Lil Nas X. He recently wrote a VR experience for Rouge Mocap and is currently developing multiple video games with their staff.
From insightful critiques on performances to writing scenes, monologues, and directing in our advanced classes, Darren has proven to be a long-standing and invaluable resource.