About Me

About

Tatjana grew up in Germany as a theatre kid always involved in some form or another, whether on stage as an actress or helping out with set or prop construction, sewing costumes or applying makeup. She made the move to the US to receive her BA in Theatre Play Production from Albion College, MI and a MFA in Film Production from NYFA in Los Angeles. Since then she has been acting, producing and working in several production, management, casting and distribution companies. During her work as a scare actor during the Halloween season she discovered her true passion for makeup and special makeup effects and after a few years working in the beauty industry, she advanced her eduction at Cinema Makeup School with classes in character and airbrush as well as an Honorary Fellowship with makeup artist Leonard Engelman (Cher’s personal makeup artist, Witches of Eastwick). She has since been published in several magazines, assisted on commercial shoots (Statefarm, Claire’s / Icing) and worked as Makeup Department Head and Special Makeup Effects Artist on several short and feature films including Underdog, Weekend Warriors and The Mean One for which she designed, fabricated and applied the creature suit for the titular character (her creature was featured in Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Bloody Disgusting and Fangoria). She is the founder and co-owner of Valley Girls FX (together with Mandolyn Raine-Gorneau), a special FX lab specializing in custom prosthetics, props, speciality costumes, creature design and creature suits.