Makeup Artist to the Stars Joins Riverside College

Media Makeup students at Riverside College have been inspired to explore exciting new career prospects and professional industry work experience with the appointment of a talented new tutor, Gemma Kirk.

Gemma boasts an extremely impressive portfolio of work and has worked and trained on-set with some of the world’s leading prosthetic artists such as Shaune Harrison and Michael Dargan. She has her own production company, Vessel Studios where she is Head Makeup Artist. Alongside her team, Gemma has won several major awards including ‘Best Music Film’ at the Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards and has received prestigious BAFTA and Oscar nominations. She has recently worked on advertising campaigns for Game of Thrones, The Guardian, FIFA World Cup and has also worked with academy award nominee John Hurt on his final film; Break.

Gemma added, “The highlight of my career so far has been working with academy award winner Ron Howard on several projects including the 2016 documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week.”

Gemma decided to work at Riverside College for one simple reason; she loves to teach.

“I feel if courses were available when I started at 17 like the current options at Riverside College, then I would I would have progressed even further in my career. I love passing on my knowledge and I feel studying a full time Level 2 and 3 Media Makeup course at college is a great way to prepare for all eventualities in this tough, competitive industry. This learning experience will create confident, prepared and highly qualified makeup artists who can progress to university or at a private academy to study further in a chosen field.

“I could choose to teach media makeup anywhere but I believe local colleges are crucial in enabling young people from all backgrounds to go on and build a career in a notoriously difficult industry. Further Education colleges have some of the most skilled and passionate teachers in the world and these courses should be taken advantage of.”

Gemma has big plans for the future of the media makeup course and aims to add plenty of industry experience through professional workshops and masterclasses. Exciting visits to the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show in London and Moulin Rouge in Paris will also take place. All of these experiences will help to create future industry standard makeup artists.”

Gemma added, “There are so many job opportunities in the North West for makeup artists today, with projects such as Media City and many film and TV productions regularly using the location. I believe the next major artists can quite easily emerge from the North of England and from Riverside College.”