COURSE OVERVIEW
Elevate your career as a hair and makeup artist for film and TV.
This MA offers intensive, production-led training in advanced screen hair and makeup for film and high-end television.
Designed for experienced practitioners ready to step beyond junior roles, the course develops your ability to design hair and makeup for character, lead your department and operate confidently within professional production environments.
Content Tabs
Hair and makeup is central to how stories are told on screen. It shapes character, supports performance, establishes period and genre, and helps build believable worlds. From subtle realism to bold transformation, hair and makeup decisions are felt in every close-up. This course is an Industry-embedded MA designed for experienced practitioners who already have junior-level skills and are ready for their next level in their career.
The course combines advanced craft development with live production experience, leadership training, budgeting awareness and professional preparation. You’ll work alongside directors, producers, cinematographers and production designers on real NFTS films, operating within professional workflows that mirrors Industry expectations.
The programme is run by Elizabeth Tagg - Director of The Iver Makeup Academy, a specialist training provider led by BAFTA and Emmy Award–winning industry professionals with credits across major international productions including Supergirl, Nuremberg, Star Wars, Avengers, Ghostbusters, Black Mirror and many more.
This MA is designed to help you enter the Industry confident, production-literate and ready to work at a professional level as a makeup artist, supervisor or emerging designer in film and HETV. Graduates of NFTS production courses go on to work across film and television in roles ranging from assistants and trainees to supervisors and department leads on major productions.
You’ll leave the course with:
- Advanced technical and creative hair and makeup skills for screen
- Experience leading and assisting on live NFTS productions
- Practical understanding of budgeting, scheduling and departmental management
- Confidence working within professional hair and makeup teams
A curated industry-ready portfolio and reflective Master’s Portfolio - Career planning tools and Industry insight
- Strong cross-department connections across the NFTS community
The course runs full-time from January to December and is structured around progressive workshops and production modules. The course will consolidate your existing junior-level practice into advanced, screen-ready competence across hair, makeup, wigs and introductory prosthetics. Working from script extracts, you will develop research-led designs and practical tests, focusing on professional process, hygiene, continuity awareness and script-to-screen translation.
You will lead hair and makeup across pre-production and shoot, managing budgets, schedules, departmental planning and collaboration at scale. Throughout the year, you will take on the roles of hair and makeup lead and assistant on different films, working directly with directing, cinematography and production teams.
Throughout the year, you’ll also complete ten independent makeup projects, responding to professional-style scenario briefs across genres and periods, building range, experimentation and portfolio depth. You’ll move from advanced consolidation into supported leadership and near-industry-level responsibility on a graduation film.
Alongside production, you’ll develop your Master’s Portfolio, a critical and professional document that captures your creative identity, growth and readiness for industry.
Before you graduate, you’ll refine your portfolio, CV and career strategy, presenting your work to Industry members and developing a clear, realistic career development plan.
This course is for practitioners who already have a foundation in hair and makeup and want to move beyond junior level into design thinking, supervision and leadership.
This course is right for you if you’re interested in:
- Designing hair and makeup that supports character, narrative and performance
- Working in film and high-end television
- Translating scripts into screen-ready designs
- Period, contemporary and character-driven work
- Wigs, hairpieces, prosthetics and transformation
- Leading teams and contributing confidently in collaborative environments
- Working under pressure in fast-paced production settings
- Developing the authority to justify creative decisions on set
You may be:
- A recent graduate with strong foundational training in hair and makeup
- A working practitioner ready to step into more senior roles
- A creative professional looking to specialise in screen hair and makeup
What matters most is your commitment to the craft, your understanding of storytelling, your collaborative mindset and your readiness to work at Master’s level.
Students come from diverse backgrounds and countries. We value professionalism, creative potential and ambition to grow.
While many applicants will have a degree from a British or overseas university, we will consider applicants who do not have a degree if they have an impressive portfolio, a creative track record or an alternative qualification.
International students Visa and English language requirements
If you have any questions, please email info@nfts.co.uk.
Applicants must submit an application that includes a portfolio demonstrating existing experience and technical competence in hair and makeup.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend an interview and you may be asked to participate in a practical workshop where creative potential, professional readiness and current skill levels will be assessed.
FUNDING AVAILABLE
The NFTS awards more scholarships and bursaries to British students, relative to the size of our student body, than almost any other educational institution in the UK. If you’re successful at gaining a place on the course, you will be contacted by our funding team with details on how to apply for one of these scholarships.
