For this week’s #traineetuesday, please meet Madison!

Before working in the industry Madison studied Theatrical and Media Makeup at Coleg Gwent’s Crosskeys campus. Starting off at level 2 and working her way through to level 3, she realised this was something she wanted to do professionally as a career. Madison decided to stay at the college and complete a HND/HNC (level 4 / level 5) qualification. Throughout her time at college, she and others on her course had the chance to go to and help schools and theatres with hair and makeup for plays and different shows which helped them gain some real on job experience.

Before her first ‘break’ into the industry, Madison did a lot of free work to gain more experience for her CV, including photo shoots and small budget films. During this time, Madison applied for many jobs, one of which was for a Makeup Trainee post advertised by Screen Alliance Wales.  Although she wasn’t successful with that application, when another Traineeship arose, a year later, Screen Alliance Wales immediately put her CV forward for this position.

One Sunday evening, she received a phone call from the designer who had been given her CV by Screen Alliance Wales, asking her to come for an interview. She was offered the job, which was her first contracted job as a Makeup Trainee on His Dark Materials Season 2. 

Madison did fantastically well during her Traineeship, honing her existing skills and learning even more.  She became a vital part of the team and was given more and more responsibility as the shoot went on.   The connections that she made during her time as a SAW Trainee on HDM2 have proved invaluable for Madison and her career progression.

Madison has continued to go from strength to strength and has now stepped up to become a Junior Makeup Artist working on productions such as The Witcher Season 2, The Witcher Prequel, We Hunt Together, Willow and Industry 2.

Madison’s story goes to show that you should never give up even if you don’t get something first time as you don’t know what other, perhaps even more exciting, opportunities are waiting out there for you. We are extremely proud of Madison and all her achievements, and we can’t wait to see what she does next.

Thanks so much to Madison for telling us her story! Stay tuned for next week’s #traineetuesday.