Our Team

Richard “Mocapman” Dorton
*Head of US Operations

“If you’ve played a video game, you’ve probably killed me.”

Richard Dorton aka Mocapman, is a veteran performance capture actor, director, stunt coordinator, producer, movement consultant instructor and casting director with over 100 video game credits to his name. 

With 22 years of experience in motion & performance capture under his belt, Richard has been in the middle of the ever-changing technology and processes used in today’s world of motion capture.

Including a diverse set of skills in acting, stunts, movement, weapons, and dance, Richard has brought to life iconic video game characters like Darth Vader, Master Chief, Nathan Drake, Peter Venkman and creatures from games like Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Ghostbusters and many more.

He is known for cinematic performance captures for feature films include Jack the Giant Killer, Spiderman, Tron and most recently, as “Kevin”, The Left head of King Ghidorah from Godzilla: King of the Monsters!

Richard also runs the U.S. division of The Mocap Vaults, a school for training actors who want to pursue a career in performance and motion capture.

Instagram - @richarddorton
Website – www.mocapman.com
IMDB - https://www.imdb.me/richarddorton

John Dower
*Co-Founder

John Dower is a Director with over 25 year’s experience in Film, Television and Video Games. He started out as an actor himself, and studied at Goldsmith's College, The Northern Film School in Leeds and the Polish National Film School in Lodz.

Since graduating, John has directed many award-winning short films which have screened at over 70 film festivals worldwide. His Television Drama credits include “Silent Witness”, "Wolfblood", "Eastenders" and "Casualty" for the BBC. 

Bringing a film maker's sensibility into video games, John has directed in Motion Capture studios in the UK and USA, working in Animation and Voice on several video games titles including the Microsoft/Lionhead "Milo & Kate" project, the James Bond video game, "007 legends" with Activision/Eurocom, "Risen 3" for Piranha Bytes, a Game yet to be announced for Take-Two Interactive and is currently Cinematics Director on new titles for Saber Interactive.

John teaches on the Digital Animation course at Filmakademie Ludwigsburg, the Games Design and Development course at the National Film School (NFTS), Acting for the screen at East 15 Acting School, Drama Studio London & ALRA and Film Making at MET Film School. His classes and workshops for The Mocap Vaults have taken him to Canada, Mexico, Sweden & USA.

Oliver Hollis-Leick
*Co-Founder

Oliver is a long standing veteran in the performance capture world with eighteen years experience on over one hundred video game and movie titles.

After five years in the mocap industry, Oliver decided to study acting at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 2006-09. After graduating, he continued his work in the ever expanding world of performance capture.

His roles include Iron Man, Ant Man, Agent 47, The Hulk, Master Chief, Spiderman, James Bond and many more. He has worked at studios in the UK, USA, Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Russia for clients that include Microsoft, Sony, Activision, Avalanche, Supermassive Games, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, Guerilla, and numerous other esteemed publishers and developers.

Oliver is now the Creative Director at Saber Interactive Studios and co-wrote the recent smash hit World War Z the Video Game, along with Craig Sherman.

Gareth Taylor
*Head of UK Operations

Gareth is an innovative and highly experienced Director and Movement Director for Theatre, Motion & Performance Capture and VO. For over 20 years he has worked on over 100 motion and performance capture projects and brings a wealth of experience to every class.

Working as a Cinematics Director, VO Director, 1st AD and Movement/Creature specialist, he has collaborated with incredible teams including Netflix, Amazon Games, Supermassive Games, Blur Studios, EA Games, Sony, Playground Games and Criterion. He has been a Movement Associate for The Mocap Vaults since it’s conception and has taught a range of classes across the UK and internationally in South Korea, Germany, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. He has lectured at various symposiums and events about performing for the digital realm, as well as contributing to various books on the subject for Bloomsbury, Methuen and Red Globe Press.

Having trained as an actor, and attending the renowned movement school Jacque Lecoq in Paris, he featured in over 50 AAA games and Films, including Secret Levels for Blur Studios & Amazon Prime and Sabers’ Warhammer: Space Marines 2. He worked on the hugely successful Until Dawn and Man of Medan for Supermassive Games, Diablo 2: Resurrected, Hitman 2 and the original Harry Potter games, as well as creature development and performance on feature films Pirates of the Caribbean, John Carter of Mars, Spectre and Total Recall.

www.garethtaylor.co.uk

@garethtaylor_director

Pascal Langdale
* Head of Canadian Operations

Pascal Langdale is an actor known for his reliable versatility across multiple media. He has worked in TV, Film, Video Game and Voice. He is a movement specialist with an expertise in nonverbal behavior, and brings his characters to life through voice, body and psychology - all adjusted to the demands of the medium.

Recent work includes Far Cry 6 (complex Body doubling) and the voice of Bagley in Watch Dogs: Legion for which he was nominated for a Canadian Game Award. This also saw him mocap the performances for many of the NPC’s, and was movement choreographer, specialising in gesture and physicality. Once privately described by a colleague as “The Swiss Army Knife” of Motion Capture acting, Pascal has worked on numerous video games since his first role as Ethan Mars in Heavy Rain, in Voice, Mocap and Performance capture, Actor performance matching, reverse ADR, Facial Capture Operation and demo production.

Pascal co-wrote "Performing for Motion Capture" for Bloomsbury Methuen, with Director and Co-founder of The Mocap Vaults, John Dower. This is the world's first in depth resource for the education of the next generation of actors facing an increasing use of digital production not only drawing on the combined experience of the MCV teachers, but also conducting interviews with over twenty experts in all stages of the pipeline.

A born Londoner, Pascal is a graduate of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 3 year acting course, who made Toronto his home in 2011. He has credits in supporting roles in more than 100 TV, film roles, in the past decade in Canada, these include Killjoys, Bitten, Suits, and the recent Randal Okita movie, "See for Me".

Pascal is an active mentor and instructor in “Embodied Acting”, using Laban Technique and his own Psycho-Physical technique, that draws on nonverbal behavior studies. He does this through his company Collective Intent, and as head of the Canadian branch of The Mocap Vaults

He has recently completed Mocap and Procedural Behavior Library creation for an unannounced project.

Paul-William Mawhinney
*Staff Tutor, UK

Paul-William Mawhinney is a creative professional with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry. Across that time, he has worked professionally as an actor, director, voiceover artist, performance coach, video game narrative designer and performance capture 1st assistant director.

A graduate of the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA, Sydney), he spent a lot of his early career focussing on acting for theatre. When he moved to London in 2015, he met John Dower and Oliver Hollis-Leick at the Mocap Vaults’ “Intro to Mocap.” Since beginning his training with The Mocap Vaults he has worked on more than 30 motion capture projects. His credits in the realm of Mocap and Pcap include work in films, animations, VR, e-learning and video games, ranging from smaller independent projects all the way through to many AAA titles. Still a passionate performer, nowadays his focus is more on performance direction. Some of his notable credits of late have been as the Performance Capture Director on Fallen Leaf Studio’s 2023 Sci-fi thriller game, Fort Solis, and between 2021 - 2024 he was working with Playground Games, on their new Fable game as their Associate Performance Director. However, at present, he is the Lead Performance Director for Larian Studios.

As a performance coach and tutor, he has taught at some of the world’s most prestigious drama training institutions, including: Germany’s Filmakademie, Drama Studio London, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art’s Open Program, The Sydney Theatre Company’s Education Department, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and was the founding head of the Acting for Digital Media MA/MFA course at East 15 Acting School. Paul was invited to begin teaching with the Mocap Vaults in 2019 and has loved every mocap minute of it since then!

Nicklas Hansson
* Head of Swedish Operations

Nicklas Hansson is a highly experienced motion capture performer, stuntman and actor with a diverse background in both musical theater, martial arts and parkour as well as being a former military drill sergeant.

Having worked in the industry for nearly 15 years, not only has Nicklas done motion capture for countless games, trailers and tv shows, he also did stunts for blockbuster hollywood productions such as Game of Thrones, Transformers and Dumbo and has received two SAG awards for best stunt ensemble in a comedy or drama series.

With the versatility of being both a stunt performer and actor, Nicklas quickly started adding credits to his mocap resume, among them the Battlefield and Wolfenstein franchises, Horizon: Forbidden West, Cyberpunk 2077, Assassins Creed: Valhalla, Call of Duty: Vanguard and many many more.

Jarrell Hall *Staff Tutor (USA)

A Bay Area native and avid rock climber; Jarrell was raised in Oakland, California. Originally a musician; Jarrell began to study acting, martial arts, and dance from age 7. He has studied various forms of martial arts including Wing Chun, Choy Li Fut, Filipino Martial Arts, and Aikido/Kenjutsu. He later expanded his skills in various firearms and special skills as a civil contractor.

 Jarrell has studied acting, movement, Stage combat, and animal work at world renowned schools like A.C.T. in San Francisco. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Cal Shakes, and studied for his BFA in Theatre from Chapman University. In 2015, Jarrell started his motion capture career under the teachings of Richard Dorton and the Mocap Vaults. Since then, Jarrell has done mocap and performance capture for various video games, movies, TV shows, and more.

 Along with his production company, Jarrell continues to expand his skills in motion capture as a technician, vfx supervisor, and director. Thus earning him the title of 'The Mocap Hybrid.'

 A few of his credits include Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Game of Thrones, Marvels Midnight Suns, Aquaman the Lost Kingdom, John Wick 4, Transformers Rise of the Beast, The Book of Boba Fett, and many video games.

Darren Bailey
*Staff Tutor, USA

Darren Bailey is a lifelong actor with a BA in Theatre from Miami University, where he also extensively studied singing, film, art, and playwriting. In 2010, he co-founded the viral martial arts team Thousand Pounds Action Company, best known for their Street Fighter and Naruto fan films, and whose members are now responsible for the action design in Marvel and Star Wars films, among others. That same year, Darren began working as a stunt performer and then as a stunt coordinator in 2013. He was the membership director and ensemble actor in the LA-based theatre company Son of Semele before it closed in 2021. He is also a prolific writer, filmmaker, and acting coach who completed The Mocap Vaults curriculum in 2018 and began regularly volunteering as Richard Dorton’s assistant shortly thereafter. Additionally, he has worked full-time as support staff in the visual effects industry for the past decade on the highest grossing films of all time. 

Some of his motion capture credits include Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, The Elder Scrolls Online, and the music video “Holiday” for Lil Nas X. He recently wrote a VR experience for Rouge Mocap and is currently developing multiple video games with their staff. 
From insightful critiques on performances to writing scenes, monologues, and directing in our advanced classes, Darren has proven to be a long-standing and invaluable resource.