About Us

Who we are
and what we do.

• 01

  VFX Supervisor / Co-Owner

  Jonathan Hairman

  Jonathan has close to 30 years’ experience in VFX and production working across Australia, Europe and the United States.

  Jonathan honed his craft in London through the 2000s, supervising VFX at Framestore for leading international commercial directors on global brand campaigns, working alongside legendary directors including Jonathan Glazer, Frank Budgen and Tom Hooper.

  Returning to Sydney in 2012, he moved into long form. Credit highlights include Our Brand Is Crisis for David Gordon Green and Warner Bros., Vice Principals for HBO, The New Boy for Warwick Thornton and Class of '07 for Amazon Studios as show supervisor. In 2025 he was VFX supervisor on StudioCanal's feature Kangaroo, shot in Alice Springs, built around photorealistic CG kangaroos.

  Since he and Christian Debney launched Stage23 in 2017, the studio has grown into one of Australia's leading independent VFX companies, working with Universal, Sony, Amazon, Netflix, A24, StudioCanal and Peacock, alongside independent producers including Causeway, Brindle Films, See-Saw Films and Altitude.

• 02

  Creative Director / Co-Owner

  Christian Debney

  Christian Debney is a filmmaker, creative director and visual effects artist whose career spans directing, animation, design, practical effects and high-end VFX.

  He began his career working across multiple filmmaking disciplines, from building prop lightsabers for the Star Wars prequels and constructing sets on Sexy Beast, to mask making on V for Vendetta. He later moved into animation and visual effects, specialising in photorealistic 3D, concept development and visual storytelling.

  Christian has directed commercials and music promos for artists and clients including Coldplay and Simple Minds, and has been represented by production companies including MPC and Crossroads Films. To support this work, he founded and ran two VFX and animation studios in London, overseeing teams of more than 30 artists.

  Before relocating to Australia, Christian served as a Director of Animation on the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, working alongside Danny Boyle. He later worked as Second Unit Director on Stephan Elliott’s Swinging Safari.

  Today, Christian is co-founder and Creative Director of Stage23, where he combines filmmaking, design and visual effects with the development of original film projects. Alongside his work for other filmmakers, he is increasingly focused on directing and developing a slate of narrative projects, bringing together his experience in practical filmmaking, visual effects and emerging production technologies.

• 03

  Head of 2D / VFX Supervisor

  Liam Gare

  Born and raised in Adelaide, Liam has established himself as a leading force in Australia’s visual effects industry after honing his skills at Rising Sun Pictures.

  With direction from industry greats, his creative eye, technical expertise, and leadership skills developed as a comp lead, before working in London at Pixomondo and Framestore.

  He now leads our team of artists as Head of 2D and Comp supervisor to deliver world-class visual effects for international productions. With credits on films such as Shang-Chi, Furiosa, Ford v Ferrari, Liam has helped bring some of cinema’s most visually complex moments to life. Most notably, working as lead artist on Mickey 17, pioneering the groundbreaking work responsible for the digital twinning of Robert Pattinson, a feat that pushed the boundaries of the technology and artistry involved.

  Liam pushed his skillset outside of VFX post production working on set for productions such as The Tourist and Furiosa, and numerous music videos for iconic Australian artists such as The Wanderers, Carla Geneve, and The Empty Threats.

• 04

  VFX Supervisor

  Jeremy Howdin

  Jeremy has two decades' experience across film VFX, television and animation, and is an Emmy-nominated visual effects supervisor. One of the first hires at Stage23, he has helped shape the studio's growth and now leads as Head of 3D and VFX Supervisor. He previously held senior roles at Animal Logic and Mighty Nice, working on large-scale production pipelines.

  His feature film credits for Stage23 include Anaconda, Monkeyman, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp. He has also worked on Australia, I, Frankenstein, Walking with Dinosaurs, Happy Feet Two and Legend of the Guardians. His Emmy nomination for Outstanding Visual Effects came for Australian sci-fi series Farscape, and he was nominated for VES Best Single Visual Effect of the Year for a hero shot on Knowing.

  With a background combining a degree in Industrial Product Design from the University of Canberra with advanced training at AFTRS, he was awarded a prestigious scholarship from the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, where he also tutored and mentored the early wave of VFX practitioners.

• 05

  VFX Producer

  Stefanie Boensch

  A creatively driven and meticulous producer with extensive experience leading global production teams across all stages of film and media. Stefanie oversees projects across international studios, aligning creative vision with financial and scheduling goals to deliver world-class content on time and within budget.

  Stefanie is recognised for building strong client partnerships, streamlining workflows and leading teams with a balance of motivation, structure and adaptability. Her global experience has been bolstered by roles working across Germany, Canada and the UK, most notably as associate producer at MPC. Career highlights include working on Mufasa: The Lion King, Cruella, The One and Only Ivan and Shazam.

• 06

  Executive Consultant & Head of International Business Development — UK

  Michelle Martin

  Michelle Martin is an international VFX executive consultant. Previously she has worked within senior roles for studios including Framestore, Milk and Pixomondo, contributing to critically acclaimed productions such as The Crown, Black Mirror, The Witcher, Luther and Lovecraft Country. Drawing on her experience within VFX, she is now consulting with creatively driven, agile VFX teams, helping them to grow, navigate complex production challenges and deliver high-quality visual storytelling in an ever-evolving industry.

  Recognised for bringing together creative teams and stakeholders to align vision with execution, she provides business development as well as strategic guidance on production, content delivery and emerging technologies, enabling both VFX studios and production teams to realise creatively driven projects in an increasingly competitive global market.

  Based in London, Michelle is driving international creative opportunities and co-production partnerships for Stage23 in addition to building its presence in the UK and Europe.

• 07

  Head of FX

  Aevar Bjarnason

  Forged in Iceland and reframed in Australia.

  At Fuel VFX, Aevar realised Ridley Scott's vision for the Orrery, the holographic three-dimensional mapping system at the centre of Prometheus, along with the film's wider hologram work. He went on to Marvel's Iron Man 3 at the same facility, then to senior roles at Animal Logic, Fin Design & Effects and Cutting Edge, where he was CG and VR lead on titles including The Invisible Man for Leigh Whannell. Further credits include Alien: Covenant and Captain Marvel.

  He joined Stage23 in 2023 as Head of FX. A self-confessed devotee of digital gore, he has relished the studio's slate: VFX supervisor on The Bluff for Amazon, CG supervisor on The Moogai and Maxxxine.

  Aevar came to Australia from Iceland in 2005, studying multimedia design at Billy Blue before completing a Master of Animation at UTS. A fine arts background gives him the critical eye, paired with a long interest in gaming technology and film. He gravitates to visually strange problems, the ones that have to be cracked from a design standpoint.

• 08

  Lead Animator

  Rhys Davey

  Rhys works across television, feature, commercials and games, moving between stylised and realistic animation with equal fluency. His credits include Knuckles, SpongeBob 2, Ted 2, Christopher Robin and Ghostbusters (2016).

  At Stage23 that range has been put to work at both ends, from the stylised character animation of Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp to realistic creature work on Monkeyman and Kangaroo.

  As lead animator on Monkeyman, Kangaroo and Whale Shark Jack, Rhys drove the anatomical accuracy of the creature work and mentored the animation team, lifting the standard across the project.

• 09

  Head of Lighting

  Matt Sato-Smith

  Matt Sato-Smith joined Stage23 in 2022, returning to Australia after a rich and diverse 15-year animation career in Japan.

  He brings more than 25 years across visual effects and animation to the role, leading the lighting department and most recently supervising the VFX team on Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

  Matt started his career at Animal Logic, refining his craft as a 3D artist before creating space battles and alien worlds as a lead artist on the Farscape television series.

  He then moved to Tokyo, where he spent 15 years building an extensive knowledge of long-form animation production. Across Marza Animation Planet, Polygon Pictures and Square Enix he worked in lighting, layout and environment roles on animated films, TV series and AAA game titles, serving as senior lighting artist on the opening sequence for the first Sonic movie and on the cyber-noir titles Deus Ex and Hitman: Absolution. The years in Japan also gave him a deep command of the language, culture and visual style.

  As Head of Lighting he oversees all projects, and alongside Sonic the Hedgehog 3 he relishes the progressive set extension and digital-double work for Dev Patel's Monkey Man.

  Known to take the extra leap for his projects, he served as VFX supervisor and skydiver on the 2018 PlayStation campaign "You Can Do It" with the acclaimed Japanese director Yuichi Kodama.