1 of 5
Photo courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
Vestavia Hills native Isabella Marie Gordon puts makeup on the face of Sam Jays as part of a creative personal makeup project she was undertaking. Gordon also for the second year was chosen to do makeup for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood this year.
2 of 5
Photos courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
Isabella Marie Gordon puts makeup on the face of a model in a fashion class in Burbank, California.
3 of 5
Photos courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
A face prosthetic piece Gordon is creating
4 of 5
Photos courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
A fake injury Gordon created
5 of 5
Photos courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
Gordon and fellow makeup artists for Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood dress in costumes to look like some of the characters at the 2023 event.
When Isabella Marie Gordon was 15, she found herself in an after-school theater program at Vestavia Hills High School — which, in hindsight, she says was strange because she didn’t like to act or sing.
But at that point in her life, she was experimenting with something theater-related: makeup.
Little did she know that seven years later, she’d be making a living as a makeup artist in California at 22 years old and putting the scary faces to one of October’s iconic national attractions: Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. This is the second consecutive year for Gordon to work her makeup magic at Universal, a highlight on a resume that now also includes work on more than 20 small-budget films.
“It’s a big haunt event, and there are different haunted mazes that you walk through and a bunch of different characters who jump out and scare you,” she said of Halloween Horror Nights, which attracts tens of thousands of fans each night to scream their way through Hollywood-inspired scare houses. “As you walk through the park, there are characters who chase you around and do all of those things.”
Gordon said getting to work there is her “favorite thing” and an unexpected honor.
Photos courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
Isabella Marie Gordon puts makeup on the face of a model in a fashion class in Burbank, California.
Makeup as an art
Gordon’s interest in art started early.
“I’d been an artist my whole life,” she said. “I’d always painted and been interested in drawing and doing all that fun stuff.”
She’d also been interested in the special effects makeup she saw on TV.
“So I started painting acrylic paint on my legs and my face, which is not the safest, and I don’t recommend doing that,” she said with a laugh.
Gordon still didn’t see her makeup hobby as something connected to her theater program at Vestavia Hills High. But that all changed when an opportunity came along to enter a theater competition: the Walter Trumbauer High School Theatre Festival, put on by the Alabama Conference of Theatre.
Her friends started saying she should enter it — they saw something she couldn’t see.
“I was like, ‘I don’t even know what I would compete with,’ and they told me there was a makeup portion,” Gordon said. “And so I was like, OK, that’s a little out of my comfort zone, but I would do it.”
She had to choose a Broadway show or another stage production to create the makeup for, and she chose “Alice in Wonderland.”
“You had to come up with character makeup and design for every character that would be in the show,” Gordon said. “I made a whole posterboard and had to write out every character and the description and why I chose to do that.”
She scored a superior in her district and progressed to the statewide competition — which she won.
From then on, Gordon had a new dream, which she’s now living out. After she graduated from Vestavia, she planned to move to Burbank, California, to attend Make-up Designory, a professional makeup school. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, her plans were delayed about a year and a half, but ultimately she made it.
“I was there for about six months; I did the full program,” Gordon said.
The course of study at Make-up Designory is a little different than at cosmetology school, she said. It has a beauty program, and they learn about color theory, but there’s also lab work with molds and prosthetics for special effects makeup.
Photos courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
A face prosthetic piece Gordon is creating
Halloween fun
After Gordon graduated in May 2023, one of her teachers, who works at Horror Nights, asked her to apply to work there.
“After I finished her class, she mentioned she really wanted me to apply for it, which was great to have someone take a moment out of their day to say, ‘Hey, I think you would really thrive in this environment,’” Gordon said.
She interviewed and “fortunately got hired right after school, which I was told was super rare.”
Gordon’s first work at Horror Nights was with quick lines, which are less complicated makeup jobs.
“Since I didn’t have a ton of experience, they typically put you in that spot,” she said. “You’re not doing huge makeups; you’re kind of just putting fake blood where it needs to go or putting black makeup on their necks so you can’t see it when masks are on.”
After a few hours, the event organizers moved her to an area where she was working with masks.
“It was such a wonderful experience,” Gordon said of Horror Nights. “I met my favorite people that I surround myself with, such supportive friends.”
Photos courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
A fake injury Gordon created
She said she also loved being surrounded by Halloween for two months.
“It’s just a great environment to be in and extremely fun; it’s a great place to grow,” she said. “It’s a seasonal job, yes, but it’s something to look forward to each year.”
Gordon said she really enjoys the special effects aspect of the work.
“That’s something that’s always been super fun, getting to experiment with it. There’s not really a right or wrong way to do it, and that’s just really fun for me,” she said.
She also enjoys her work on the set of short films.
“On set, I’ve done a lot of injuries and regular beauty makeup, some bruises, some cuts,” Gordon said.
Future plans
Gordon said she hopes to one day get into the Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild, a membership that is required for artists to work with big-budget films and TV shows.
“That is my goal, and I’m giving myself about 10 years because it can take longer or shorter, but that’s something I’m working toward,” Gordon said. “I want to get to a place where I can work on high-end films with big budgets so that I’m able to flourish my creativity and work with other people to create something really cool.”
In the meantime, she’s happy right where she is, she said.
“I’m fortunate to have found something that really brings me joy so young in life,” Gordon said. “I can 100% say I’m the happiest ever. I just love being there and doing makeup and figuring out what works best for me and working with other people.”
She said she’s grateful for a great support network of family, friends and teachers back home who encouraged her along the way, including her grandparents.
“They’ve been my No. 1 supporters since day one,” Gordon said. “They’ve always bought me art supplies and supported my makeup ideas, and when I told them I wanted to go to makeup school, they were so, so supportive of me.”
She said even though it’s been a challenge to support herself in California as she moves up in the industry, she has zero regrets.
Photos courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
Gordon and fellow makeup artists for Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood dress in costumes to look like some of the characters at the 2023 event.
“I have a lot of interests, and I’m such a creative person. … Something I really enjoy about this career choice is that it’s something new every day,” she said. “Every set job that you get and every opportunity you get, it’s never the same thing.”
That goes for both the work and the people Gordon meets.
“I like that there’s different colors and textures and character ideas and getting to work with a whole bunch of new people,” she said. “I love getting to make connections and meeting like-minded people who are also in the creative field.”
Jamie Stephenson, the theater teacher at Vestavia Hills High School, said Gordon is a “very talented makeup artist” who impacted the way Stephenson runs the theater program at the school.
“She loved that art form and wanted to pursue it after high school,” Stephenson said. “She is a big part of the reason that I created a makeup and costuming class so that other students could be able to only focus on those aspects of theater.”
She said Gordon always had a focus on her future and turning her creativity into a career. “It is so wonderful to hear that she was able to accomplish those goals.”
Grace Thornton contributed to this report.
