I was born and raised in Springfield, Illinois, and was enamored with film and television 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, helping with the Directing Workshop for Women but first assisting with the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award Show honoring John Williams. All of the sudden I was in the presence of titans of the industry such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Kobe Bryant, Will Ferrel, Kevin Feige, and more. To be exposed to something like that within a week of moving to LA was both incredible and life affirming.

Over the past decade, I’ve explored my varied interests in both film and television with crossovers into acting, directing, editing, and more. Perhaps most notably, I’ve been fortunate to have 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.

I owe a lot of gratitude and influence to George Lucas, Peter Jackson and Kevin Smith for taking the leap of faith to pursue this life: Firstly, it was the world-building of Star Wars that stoked the fires of my 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, some gumption, 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