Erik Jensen grew up in New Jersey. As a young person he loved monster movies. For a time he considered pursuing a career as a veterinarian. But when his friend Chris Walas moved out to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the movie FX business, Erik wasn't too far behind.
In Hollywood Erik worked on several low budget horror movies honing his skills and making connections. It was a small community and led to working with Rob Bottin on multiple projects, including John Carpenter's 1982 remake "The Thing". Erik worked in both production and as an artist.
Erik's work landed him a job on Dragonslayer at ILM where he would work on multiple projects for more than 20 years. HIs amazing list of credits include; Young Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek IV, Ghostbusters II, Star Wars: Episode 1, Space Cowboys, AI, Peter Pan, Star Wars: Episode III, and Jarhead. He also left ILM to work at Skellington on The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.
He later worked at TraumaFX building realistic task trainers for both human and K9 simulators for emergency medical training. Today Erik is retired and lives with his wife being an active grandparent. It was great fun talking with Erik about his life and incredible career (which is obvious as this is a long one). 🇳🇴
