Sir Richard Taylor KNZM
Taylor in 2014
Born	Richard Leslie Taylor (1965-02-08)8 February 1965 (age 60) Cheadle,Cheshire, England
Occupation	Filmmaker
Partner	Tania Taylor

Sir Richard Leslie TaylorKNZM (born 8 February 1965) is the founder,creative director and head of New Zealand filmprop andspecial effects companyWētā Workshop.

Taylor was born inCheadle,Cheshire, England, on 8 February 1965, and emigrated as a child toNew Zealand, where his family lived at Te Hihi, and later theAuckland suburb ofPatumahoe.^[1][2] He was naturalised as a New Zealand citizen in 1974.^[1] Taylor studied atWesley College, Paerata, and then became a graduate of the formerWellington Polytechnic.^[3]

Peter Jackson, Taylor and his company created all of theprops, costumes, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry for Jackson's epicThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy. For his work on the three films, he shared in winning fourAcademy Awards. This included two forThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring inMake Up andVisual Effects, and two forThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King inCostume Design and Make Up. He was nominated for Costume Design forThe Fellowship of the Ring.^[4]

Taylor can be seen and heard on all ofThe Lord of the RingsDVDs, in behind-the-scenes documentaries and on the audio commentaries on the extended edition DVDs. He also appeared on set to give direction to actors and stunt personnel in several fight scenes.^{[citation needed]}

Both Richard Taylor and Wētā Workshop appear in the documentary filmReclaiming the Blade, where they discussed the creative and technical process of how movie props (specifically swords) are created at Wētā Workshop. Swords created by Wētā for films such asThe Lord of the Rings andThe Chronicles of Narnia are featured in the film as well.^[5][6]

In the2004 New Year Honours, Taylor was appointed anOfficer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to design and the film industry.^[7] In the2010 Queen's Birthday Honours, Taylor was promoted toKnight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to film.^[8]

Wētā Workshop has also worked onThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Richard Taylor and his crew designed and built all the armor, weapons and special props for the film. The company were also heavily involved in the making of Peter Jackson's interpretation ofKing Kong for which he won his fifth Academy Award, in Visual Effects.^[9]

In April 2009, Richard Taylor won the supreme award at the World Class New Zealand Awards. The awards honourNew Zealand'stall poppies who are successful on an international level.^[10]

In February 2012 Taylor was named New Zealander of the year, beating finalistsWorld of Wearable Art founderSuzie Moncrieff and Auckland plastic surgeonSharad P. Paul, nominated for his work onskin cancer.^[11]

By 2014, Taylor's company,Wētā Workshop, was involved withMagic Leap, a startup company reported to be working on projects relating toaugmented reality andcomputer vision that received over USD $4.5 billion of venture funding by 2024.^[12][13]

In May 2020, due to economic fallout resulting from theCOVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between Taylor's Weta Workshop and Magic Leap came to an end, when the latter company laid off about 1,000 staff members worldwide. All of the Magic Leap employees in New Zealand were laid off, and the partnership with Weta Workshop was dissolved.^[14][15]

• Nominated:Best Costume Design,The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• Won:Best Makeup,The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• Won:Best Visual Effects,The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• Won:Best Makeup,The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• Won:Best Costume Design,The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• Won:Best Visual Effects,King Kong (2005)

• Richard Taylor atIMDb
• Richard Taylor's profile page on the homepage of Weta Workshop

• 1965 births
• Living people
• Best Costume Design Academy Award winners
• Best Costume Design BAFTA Award winners
• Best Makeup Academy Award winners
• Best Makeup BAFTA Award winners
• Best Visual Effects Academy Award winners
• Best Visual Effects BAFTA Award winners
• Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit
• English emigrants to New Zealand
• New Zealand film producers
• New Zealand make-up artists
• New Zealand visual effects artists
• People from Cheadle, Greater Manchester

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2020
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using infobox person with deprecated parameters
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• Articles with unsourced statements from December 2014