Steve Gawley's illustrious career in model making began during his studies at California State University at Long Beach, California, where he was a student of Industrial Design. In 1975, while still in school, he was recommended for a drafting job at George Lucas' newly formed film company, Industrial Light & Magic. This marked the beginning of Gawley's tenure as a visual effects model maker at ILM, a position he would hold for an impressive 31 years until the company was sold in August 2006.
As one of the first 14 employees hired by Lucas, Gawley played a pivotal role in the growth and development of ILM, which would eventually expand to over 1000 employees, enabling it to work on numerous high-profile film projects each year.
Throughout his career, Gawley was instrumental in introducing cutting-edge prototype construction methods and techniques, which were employed on many of ILM's projects. During his time at ILM, he had the privilege of working with some of the most successful film directors in recent motion picture history.
Gawley's impressive body of work includes contributions to 18 Academy Award-nominated films, as well as supervising the budgeting, fabrication of prototype models, and construction of miniature sets for 11 of ILM's 15 Academy Award-winning, cutting-edge visual effects film projects.
