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Marc is an international award-winning theatre and film director, writer and producer who has worked professionally within the creative arts and digital sectors for over three decades. He is a proud neurodiverse and disabled individual, and a champion of underrepresented and diverse voices within the creative industries.
He is co-founder and director of the Teesside production company Nova Mundi Studios, and for over a decade was Executive Producer and co-owner at Arcus Animation Studios — steering it to become the largest specialist 2D animation studio in the UK north of Manchester, with series work for CBBC, BBC Education and Macmillan International Publishing. Today he is Consulting Executive Producer at KingBee Animation Studios at Elstree, and co-founder of Buzzeebee AI, an AI-guided animated children's app developed with BBC Education and supported by Innovate UK.
Marc also works as a freelance creative-industries consultant and national mentor — currently for Creative UK on the Create Growth and Screen Launchpad programmes, and for ScreenSkills — advising founders, combined authorities, screen agencies and education partners on studio infrastructure, Virtual Production and the future of the sector.
Marc de Launay
The road here
A signed musician — with his band, A Band Called Push — and a professional actor in his twenties, Marc went on to found his own touring theatre company before serving an apprenticeship crewing in film and TV — production co-ordinator, then 1st Assistant Director — and rising into producing and directing.
He directed the BAFTA-nominated Channel 4 series Vids, won an Edinburgh Fringe First for Love, Sex & Cider, and taught Acting for Camera masterclasses at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. His debut feature, the thriller Dark Nature, earned a Cineworld theatrical release, worldwide distribution through Troma in New York, and a BAFTA Best Director (New Talent) nomination.
Selected recognition
In the room
“A portfolio career some may see as failing, but I always see as learning — and ‘Failing Forwards’ is, for me, a far better way to develop both personally and professionally. I am a true believer in ‘Acta Non Verba’. I hear too many people saying and not doing, being too protective rather than sharing — and that has never been who I am.” — Marc de Launay