I was born and raised in Springfield, Illinois, and was enamored with entertainment from a very early age, often acting out my favorite scenes or creating intricate storylines involving my toys.

It wasn’t until high school that I became a participant in the arts in earnest, playing multiple roles in a German-language adaptation of ‘Young Frankenstein’ my junior year. During senior year, I filmed, acted in, and edited a short for a school project and decided that this is what I wanted to do for a living.

In 2016, I graduated from Southern Illinois University with a major in Cinema & Photography and a minor in Radio, Television and Digital Media. I moved to Los Angeles two weeks later, getting my start in the industry interning with the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women as well as assisting with the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award Show honoring John Williams who, if you know anything about the movies he’s been involved with, you’d understand just how incredible it felt to do that for my first job.

I’ve been a part of the FOX Network’s hit show ‘The Masked Singer’ since its second season and currently hold the title of Senior Producer in post-production. Along the way, I’ve continued to explore my varied interests in both film and television with crossovers into acting, directing, editing, and more.

My greatest filmmaking influences are George Lucas, Peter Jackson and Kevin Smith: Firstly, it was the world-building of Star Wars that stoked those fires of imagination as a child. Then, it was the documentaries about the making of The Lord of the Rings that were instrumental in peeling back the curtain on just how fun, challenging, and rewarding working on films could be. Finally, Clerks showed me that one person with a dream and without a giant studio behind them could forge their own path to success in this industry.

Overall, I aspire to entertain, inform, and inspire audiences with my projects regardless of genre. My dream acting role is to play a lawyer that wins a hard fought case, and my dream film project is to direct a live action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Thanks for visiting my site!

-Justin Cooper Hankinson