Ve Neill is a makeup artist known for creating the looks and prosthetics in Tim Burton movies, Mrs. Doubtfire, Pirates of the Caribbean and Hunger Games films, and many others. She is a three-time Academy Award winner and eight-time nominee.

Neill was born Mary Flores in Riverside, California, and became interested in doing makeup and creating monsters when she was only five years old. She started painting faces using anything from lipstick to shoe polish, then learned more about the art form from Leo Lotito, a TV make-up artist. When she was 18, Neill attended a science fiction convention where she met Fred Phillips (Star Trek original series) who hired her to work with him on Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

At that same sci-fi con, Neill met a group of men cosplaying as Planet of the Apes characters who had made their own masks. She asked them to teach her how they did it and one answered by saying, “But you’re a girl.” In interviews, Neill has stated that while honing her skills, her male counterparts didn’t want to share knowledge with her because they felt that she was encroaching on their territory. The sexism she faced spurred Neill on to continue learning how to do makeup and not let anyone hold her back because she was a woman.

Her first onscreen makeup jobs came in 1977 for Cinderella, Kingdom of the Spiders, and The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover. Neill did Lily Tomlin’s makeup in 9 to 5, and continued working with Tomlin for her TV specials, Lily: Sold Out and Lily for President?. She was the regular makeup artist on The A-Team, worked on The Lost Boys, and won her first Oscar for Beetlejuice. She worked with Paul Reubens in Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Big Top Pee-wee, and Christmas at Pee-wee’s Playhouse.

Neill did the makeup for Dick Tracy, Flatliners, got her second Oscar nod for Edward Scissorhands, and did Julia Roberts’ makeup in Hook. In ’93, she was nominated for two Academy Awards for Hoffa and Batman Returns. She won her second and third Oscars in back to back years for Mrs. Doubtfire in ’94 and Ed Wood in ’95. She worked on Batman Forever, Matilda, Mars Attacks!, won an Emmy for The Shining miniseries, did makeup for Batman & Robin, Amistad, Man on the Moon, and Galaxy Quest.

She did the makeup for How the Grinch Stole Christmas, earned her seventh Oscar nod for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, worked on Constantine, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, earning her eighth Academy Award nomination. Neill did Johnny Depp’s makeup and hair in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, headed the makeup department on The Hunger Games and its three sequels, did the makeup on The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel, and worked on X-Men: Days of Future Past. Her most recent work has been in LBJ, A Star is Born, and Pee-wee as Himself.

Outside of film work, Neill has been a judge on the Face Off makeup competition, and in 2017 she became the Director of Education at the Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles. Neill opened her own school, Legends Makeup Academy, in 2021.