Ben Grossmann
Ben Grossmann (born June 23, 1977) is a visual effects supervisor in Los Angeles, California. He won an Oscar award for Hugo in 2012, and an Emmy award for The Triangle in 2006. He is the co-founder and CEO of Magnopus, a cross-reality experience company.

Career
Between 1994 and 2000, he worked as a photojournalist at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as a weatherman at both KFXF Fox 7, and KXDF-CD CBS13, and was a radio DJ at KSUA 91.5FM in Fairbanks, Alaska.

From 2001 to 2013, he worked as a visual effects artist & technician on Hollywood films, music videos, and commercials under visual effects supervisors like Rob Legato,Volker Engel, & Marc Weigert for filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Roland Emmerich, J.J. Abrams, Tim Burton and Jon Favreau.  During this time, he worked on music videos for artists like Radiohead, Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey, and also directed television commercials. He worked as a designer on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey an motion-based dark ride in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

In 2013, with partners Alex Henning, and Rodrigo Teixeira, he formed MAGNOPUS, a visual development company with offices in downtown Los Angeles. and St. Albans, England.

Between 2018 and 2022, he was director for the largest cross-reality geospatial metaverse to date at Expo 2020 Dubai. He also served as Narrative and Exhibition Designer for the Mobility Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.

He is a patented inventor in mixed reality.

In 2022, his company's Connected Spaces platform was selected as one of Time's Best Inventions of 2022.

Early life
Benjamin Tyndale Grossmann was born on June 23, 1977, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. His father Bruce R. Grossmann, served in the US Army first as an enlisted Medic, and then as a Signal Officer, his mother, Dawn Elise Frazier(née Warren, later Grossmann) was a preschool teacher and weather observer in Delta Junction, Alaska. He has two sisters Brooke Grossmann, Annalise Grossmann and a brother Elias Grossmann.

Though he traveled extensively throughout the United States as a child, he spent most of his childhood in Alaska before moving to California.

Awards
In 2013, he was nominated for an Academy Award for the film Star Trek Into Darkness directed by J.J. Abrams.

In 2012, he won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for the film Hugo. directed by Martin Scorsese. (Video)

In 2006, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for the Scifi Miniseries The Triangle.

In 2011, he won a Satellite Award for Best Visual Effects.

He has won two Visual Effects Society Awards: Outstanding Virtual Cinematography for The Lion King (2019 film) in 2020, and Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture for Hugo (film)

He has been nominated twice (in 2011 and 2013) for the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects.

Notable appearances
In 2023, he gave a presentation on Immersive Storytelling in the Metaverse in the "Building the Open Metaverse Podcast" (Video)

In 2019, he discussed the development of virtual cinematography systems in the supplemental material for The Lion King (2019 film) (Video)

In 2017, he presented Mission:ISS developed with NASA in virtual reality to MIT at Beyond the Cradle, alongside filmmaker Douglas Trumbull and author Warren Ellis.

In 2017, he gave a presentation The Importance of Communication & Other Skills Needed on Movie Sets (Video) and Why Reliability is Better Than Talent (Video) to the graduating students of Full Sail University.

In May 2015, he was the Commencement Speaker at the University of Alaska Fairbanks graduation ceremony (Video).

In 2012, he gave a Visual Effects Mini Masterclass in a Video by the British Academy Film Awards

References

External links

1970s births
Best Visual Effects Academy Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Living people
People from Fairbanks, Alaska
People from Washington, D.C.
Special effects coordinators
University of Alaska Fairbanks alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)