Jonathan Hairman

Jonathan Hairman has close to 30 years’ experience in visual effects, working across Australia, Europe and the United States. He is the co-founder of Stage23, one of Australia’s leading independent VFX companies, and one of the country’s most experienced visual effects supervisors.

Jonathan honed his craft at Framestore London throughout the 2000s, supervising VFX for top international commercials directors on global brand campaigns. On returning to Sydney in 2012, he turned to long-form work, supervising multiple features and television series. Credit highlights include Our Brand Is Crisis for David Gordon Green and Warner Bros., Vice Principals for HBO, Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy, and Amazon’s Class of ’07 as show supervisor.

In 2017 Jonathan launched Stage23 with Christian Debney after the pair met on the set of Stephan Elliott’s Swinging Safari, where Jonathan was VFX supervisor and Christian was second unit director. Based at Disney Studios Sydney, Stage23 has grown into one of Australia’s leading independent VFX companies, working with major studios including Universal, Sony, Amazon, Netflix, StudioCanal and Peacock, as well as independent production companies such as Causeway, Brindle Films, See-Saw and Altitude.

Company credits include Dev Patel’s Monkey Man, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing and, more recently, Whale Shark Jack, Bring Her Back, Anaconda, The Bluff and Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), the 3D concert film co-directed by James Cameron and Billie Eilish.

Most recently, Jonathan served as VFX supervisor on StudioCanal’s Kangaroo. Filmed in Alice Springs and featuring industry-leading photorealistic CG kangaroo effects, the film has become 2026’s top-grossing Australian film and was named Best Feature Film at the 24th annual SPA Awards.