Neil Roche

Head Of 3D

Neil Roche is a highly experienced 3D VFX artist with a passion for creating photo-real CG creatures honed over 20 years in high-end TV and film.

Neil is Head of 3D at Milk and one of the original team members when the award-winning studio launched in 2013.  Originally Head of Rigging and Creature FX, he is one of the architects of the Milk’s rigging and creature FX pipeline, specialising in all types of creature work.

Neil has led the CFX and developed in-house modular rigging systems and CFX pipelines on a variety of high-profile productions at Milk, including BBC/Amazon’s Good Omens and Netflix’ Cursed for which Milk earnt a BAFTA Television Craft Award nominations in 2020 and 2021. Neil recently completed production as Head of 3D on Sky’s eight-episode sci-fi drama series Intergalactic.

Neil’s TV credits include Origin (YouTube); Altered Carbon (Netflix); Channel 4/ Sony’s Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams. Neil was rigging supervisor on Sky’s 2016 TV Christmas special The Last Dragonslayer, which received a BAFTA Television Craft nomination for special effects.  His credits also include creature-focused TV series Beowulf for ITV in 2015, which won an RTS nomination for best digital visual effects as well as Sherlock (BBC/Hartswood) and BAFTA-Award winning Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell.

Neil’s feature film credits include Four Kids And It (Sky) for which Neil supervised the rigging and entire creature workflow for the protagonist CG sand fairy creature voiced by Michael Caine; The Old Guard (Netflix); Baltasar Kormakur’s Adrift; Alex Garland’s Annihilation; Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (Warner Bros.); Kingsman: The Golden Circle; Ben Wheatley’s High Rise; Brett Ratner’s Hercules; Ex-Machina; Poltergeist and The Divergent Series: Insurgent.  Most recently Neil was the CG Supervisor on Netflix’ re-make of Rebecca.

Neil lead the rigging and creature FX on special event project “Dinosaurs In The Wild” – a UK immersive theatrical theme park-style experience which took visitors 67 million years back to the time of the dinosaurs. The project required over 1,000 days of animation with complex interaction between ten different types of dinosaurs and pre-historic creatures for a huge range of 6K VFX shots in stereoscopic 3D, incorporating the latest palaeontological knowledge.

Neil joined Milk from Mill TV and Film where he was Head of Rigging. While there his film and TV credits included Doctor Who, Merlin, Sinbad, and Ice age Giants, Snow White And The Huntsman, 47 Ronin and Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  Neil was part of the BAFTA-winning team on Merlin and RTS Award-winning team on Doctor Who and was twice nominated for a VES award for his creature work.

Going back further, Neil was an animator and rigger at Moving Picture Company where his credits include Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Aliens Vs Predator, Kingdom Of Heaven, Corpse Bride and the Truth about Killer Dinosaurs.

Neil graduated from the University Of Creative Arts with a degree in Animation.

David Cook

Finance Director

David Cook (ACCA) is the Financial Director at multi award-winning, independent visual effects studio Milk. David oversees Milk’s financial affairs working closely with Will Cohen Milk’s CEO. His background in forecasting, analysis and system implementation within the media sector brings the experience required for Milk’s continued growth as the studio enters its eighth year in business.

David joined the Milk team in 2017 from London based accounting and business advisory company Thomas St John where he was senior reporting manager working with UK and international clients from across the music and media industry.

Prior to this, David spent seven years with Viacom International Media Networks in both the UK and Sydney, Australia, progressing through a variety of finance roles to UK Financial Controller for MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

David holds a first class BSc in Accountancy with Finance and hails from Glasgow.

Clare Norman

Business Development Director

Clare Norman is Business Development Director at Academy and BAFTA award-winning independent VFX company Milk.

Clare was promoted to the role in June 2018, having been Milk’s Head of Production for three years – overseeing all aspects of Milk’s production for the company’s London and Cardiff studios, with a range of feature film and high-end TV projects including Alex Garland’s Annihilation; Balthasar Kormakur’s Adrift; Kingsman: The Golden Circle; Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (Warner Bros.); Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise and Free Fire; Sherlock (BBC/Hartswood); Channel 4/Amazon/Sony’s Phillip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams; Altered Carbon (Skydance/Netflix) and The Alienist (TNT/Paramount).

Clare is a veteran London-based VFX producer who has worked on a wide range of feature film and high-end TV projects over her twenty year career; with extensive experience managing VFX production both on set and in the VFX studio.

Clare joined the Milk team in 2015 from Vine FX where she was VFX Producer and Head of Production, overseeing the production team and designing pipeline and production tools and forging relationships with new clients. Clare’s credits at Vine FX include BAFTA-nominated work on Atlantis series one and two (BBC). Prior to this, Clare was a VFX Producer at Blue Bolt where she ensured the smooth running of numerous feature film projects including Snow White and the Huntsman (Universal); Skyfall (MGM); Cloud Atlas; Long Walk to Freedom and Belle as well as BBC TV series Peaky Blinders (series one) and Great Expectations (BBC) which received a BAFTA Craft nomination for special and visual effects.

Clare began her career at Cinesite where she progressed to VFX Producer, eventually becoming a member of Cinesite’s management team. Clare was VFX Producer on three of the Harry Potter films as well as Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (Disney/Bruckheimer); X-Men: The Last Stand (Fox); Batman: The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) and Bedtime Stories (Disney). Clare’s additional credits at Cinesite include Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Disney); Band Of Brothers (HBO) and The World Is Not Enough (Eon/MGM).

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Çiğdem Worthington

HR & Business Affairs Director

Cigdem Worthington is HR & Business Affairs Director at Milk, an independent Academy, BAFTA and Emmy award-winning visual effects company. Milk creates innovative and complex sequences for the high-end TV and feature film markets with credits including Baltasar Kormakur’s Adrift; Altered Carbon(Netflix); Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams; The Alienist and Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens (Amazon/BBC).

Cigdem combines her role at Milk, in which she oversees the human resources and business affairs of Milk’s Fitzrovia based studio, with a career as a successful freelance writer. Just before joining Milk, Cigdem’s very popular blog ‘Kitty Tells It As It Is’ was optioned and is being produced as a film.

Before her most recent prolific writing stint, Cigdem was Business Affairs Manager at Rainmaker/CIS UK for three years, where she worked on visual effects projects for feature films including Slumdog Millionaire, Golden Compass, Inkheart, 28 Weeks Laterand The Da Vinci Code.

Cigdem began her career at Working Title Films as Business Affairs Executive where she worked for seven years, providing legal services for a variety of feature films including Notting Hill, Billy Elliot, Elizabeth and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

Jenny Burbage

PR & Comms

Jenny began working with Milk at its inception in 2013 to handle its launch publicity and is responsible for the studio’s PR and communications.

Drop her a line if you’d like a chat with Will Cohen and the team about what Milk is up to and the fabulous projects we’ve been involved with. Or if you have a project, festival or an industry event you’d like to tell us about or get us involved with.

Jenny has over twenty years experience driving communications for broadcast, post production and entertainment media brands and content creators. She has provided communications consultancy to brands such as The Walt Disney Company, Viacom International Media Networks, Nickelodeon Consumer Products, youth consumer products brand The Extreme Sports Company, the MOJO music awards and Norwegian children’s entertainment brand City of Friends. Jenny lead the corporate communications team at Disney owned pan-European TV network Jetix Europe for five years.

Jenny began her PR career at the Jim Henson Company where she eventually headed up the UK PR team, with responsibility for special effects studio Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, pre-school hit Bear in the Big Blue House and The Muppets.