Cory Czekaj

Cory was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. Throughout his elementary school years, he and his parents would volunteer to create fun stage props and theatre displays. As his family continued to encourage his creativity, Cory developed a love for special effects and dreamed of one day heading to Hollywood to work on movies.

While in high school, Cory started an internship at a costume shop in Buffalo’s arts district, where he learned sculpting, mold making, casting, vacuforming, fabrication, painting, and hair work. After graduation, the company hired him and eventually sent him to the annual Halloween tradeshow in Chicago. While there, Cory’s aspirations to create his own company were ignited. He returned to Buffalo and started his own small mask and prop company. Over the next 4 years, Cory produced several thousand parts a year for the Halloween industry.

But Cory still had the desire to prove to himself that he was good enough to make it in the movies. So he closed down his company and moved to LA, where he was eventually hired at Steve Johnson’s XFX. This would begin a 20+ year career in FX, specializing in skin and working with foams and silicones. Over that time, Cory has worked for many of the largest shops in Hollywood, including Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Rick Baker’s Cinovation Studio, Greg Cannom’s Cannom Creations, ADI, KNB EFX, Frontline Design, Fractured FX, Quantum Creations, Stan Winston Studio, and Legacy Effects, where he continues to practice his craft.

Cory is proud to have contributed to many blockbuster feature films, including Avatar, Terminator Salvation, X-Men 2, Spider-Man 2 & 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, Superman: Man of Steel, The Hulk, Iron Man 1,2 & 3, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Alien Vs. Predator, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Total Recall, RoboCop, The Fantastic Four, Tron: Legacy, Cowboys & Aliens, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Pacific Rim, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.