Makeup specialist Megan O’Mahoney enjoys helping people look their glamorous best, but it’s horror scenes where her talents really shine.

The TAFE SA graduate enrolled in the Diploma of Screen and Media (Specialist Makeup Services) with the aim of working on fashion shoots, but she soon discovered a passion for dramatic special effects.

“During the course I worked on a Flinders University student’s Honours feature film and I loved being on set,” Megan says.

“I loved the makeup and the special effects used to create blood and guts - working on the gory side can be quite fun.”

Another highlight was spending a day on the set of SA-made feature film, Talk to Me, which received multiple awards at the 2024 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards including Best Film and Best Hair and Makeup.

“It was amazing to watch the special effects teams in action and I learnt so much from my time on set,” she says.

That experience also led to her recent gig working as a makeup artist on the Prime Video series, Top End Bub, which has been filmed in Adelaide and Darwin over the past few months.

Since graduating, Megan has worked on hair and makeup for a range of television, video and film projects including Spithood with “quite a lot of death scenes” and a fashion video for the label, Ill-Fated, where she created a demon arm.

Earlier this year she was working on a short film called Great Deliverance, made with the assistance of Quicksilver Production funding, and will be involved in several other short films this year, teaming up with some of the contacts she made through the Honours feature film.

“Helping out with the student film while still at TAFE SA was really helpful in developing a network and work opportunities have come from those initial contacts,” says Megan, who juggles the demands of each project around her role as a makeup artist at Mecca.

Megan completed a Certificate III in Beauty Services at TAFE SA in 2019 before returning to study the Screen and Media course which, she says, helped her focus on a career pathway.

“We did colour theory and the basics and built up to the amazing special effects and that really helped me decide what I wanted to do,” she says.

“The lecturers have so much industry experience and excellent networks which provided us with some great connections and opportunities.”

As part of the Diploma of Screen & Media (Specialist Makeup Services), students collaborate with Adelaide College of the Arts students to work on films, stage, TV and VFX productions, providing real-world experience and industry connections.

Megan says she enjoys the creativity and problem solving associated with special effects makeup, with recent challenges including creating a prosthetic on a leg which the actor could stitch up during filming and a head wound that needed to bleed constantly so she had to “hide the workings”.

“I like to see the finished result when the costuming, set design, audio and everything else comes together, I feel proud to see it on screen,” Megan says.

For more information about the Diploma of Screen & Media (Specialist Makeup Services), visit the TAFE SA website.