7th December 2021
MILK CEO WILL COHEN TO STEP DOWN
Stays on as non-executive director
London, 7th December 2021: Award-winning VFX studio Milk’s CEO and co-founder, Will Cohen, has today announced that he is stepping down as CEO after eight years leading the Milk team, to explore new opportunities.
He will continue to work with the Board and senior team in the first quarter of 2022 on a number of important strategic and commercial projects and to ensure a smooth transition. Following that, he is excited to continue to be involved as a shareholder and non-executive board director to help Milk deliver its ambitious growth plans.
Will co-founded Milk in 2013, leading a small, passionate team who went on to win three consecutive BAFTA Awards in the first three years, in addition to an Emmy for the BBC/Hartswood’s Sherlock and co-founder Sara Bennett becoming the first woman in twenty years to win an Oscar for VFX in 2016.
Having been responsible whilst at Mill Film and TV for the VFX in the BBC’s revival of Doctor Who with Russell T Davies, Will continued the relationship with Steven Moffat and team, leading Milk to create the BAFTA-winning VFX for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode. Will went on to executive produce the BAFTA-winning VFX for episodic series Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and brought BBC/Amazon’s acclaimed Good Omens to Milk which earned the team a BAFTA nomination in 2020.
Will has been on the board of UK Screen Alliance for the past five years and helped orchestrate the merger between UK Screen and Animation UK into the UK Screen Alliance.
Will Cohen said:
“I’m incredibly proud of Milk and the creative success we’ve achieved over the last eight years. With the confirmed slate we have for 2022 and the quality of the team we’ve been building it feels like the right moment to step forward into a new adventure.
VFX is a team sport like no other and I want to celebrate all the talented people who have made Milk a success and will continue to, long into the future.
Milk has always been about creating great work with people we love and it’s an honour for me to continue to be involved as a shareholder and in an advisory role as a non-executive board director. I am excited about the opportunities in store in 2022 for all of us!”
Jag Mundi, Executive Chairman, Milk Visual Effects commented:
“Will is passionate about the people, the work and the vfx industry and possesses a rare combination of creative and commercial flair. We would like to thank Will for his extraordinary passion and commitment to Milk. We are delighted he is going to continue to work with us all and that we can draw on his energy, expertise and experience as we build the business creatively and commercially into the future.”
During 2021, Milk has built a strong platform for growth. 2022 is set to be Milk’s busiest year ever with an exciting roster of work for major studios and production companies including Amazon, Netflix, Apple TV, Sony, the BBC, Left Bank and Working Title. In anticipation and as recently announced, the company has been strengthening the team with senior hires such as Michelle Martin (Chief Business Development Officer), Andy Morley and Oliver Cubbage (VFX/CG Supervisors) and a number of producers and this is set to continue.
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About Milk
Award-winning visual effects studio Milk creates innovative sequences for high-end episodic television and feature films, specialising in FX, environments and creatures, with a range of credits including Amazon/BBC’s acclaimed Good Omens; Netflix’ Cursed; Amazon’s Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams; Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (Warner Bros.); Baltasar Kormakur’s Adrift; and Alex Garland’s Annihilation.
Milk was founded by a small, passionate team of VFX supervisors and producers in 2013 and has won multiple awards for its creative work, including three BAFTA Television Craft awards for critically acclaimed BBC drama Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Doctor Who. Milk won an Emmy in 2016 for work on the BBC/Hartswood’s Sherlock; and in 2016 co-founder Sara Bennett became the first woman in twenty years to win an Oscar for best VFX on the film Ex-Machina at the 88th Academy Awards.
Milk’s recent work includes 850 shots for Sky Original’s sci-fi series Intergalactic, Amazon/New Regency’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Netflix’ The Last Letter From Your Lover and Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Earwig, in addition to Netflix’ feature The Old Guard; Ben Wheatley-directed feature Rebecca and episodic series Cursed – all of which were delivered remotely during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns. Milk’s work on Cursed was nominated for a BAFTA Television Craft Award earlier this year.
Milk’s credits also include feature films Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald; Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Lionsgate); Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire and High-Rise, The Martian (20th Century Fox), The Divergent Series: Insurgent; Poltergeist (Fox/MGM); Brett Ratner’s Hercules (Paramount/MGM); Everest (Universal); Dracula Untold (Universal); The Last Dragonslayer (Sky) and episodic television series Britannia (Sky).