William "Billy" Bryan was born in Newport News, Virginia to an opera singing artist/engineer father who taught him to draw and sing, and a choir-directing, ball-of-fire preacher’s-daughter mother who taught him to pattern, to sew, and to smile. Inspired by Jim Henson and the Muppets, Billy started building and performing puppet shows while in High School. In 1976, after graduating from Syracuse University with a BFA in Metalsmithing, Billy hitchhiked and hopped freights across the country to pursue his show biz dreams in Los Angeles. Within two weeks of arriving in Hollywood, he was building a banana costume for Elton John’s tour, and he’s been working steadily ever since. Five years in the NBC Wardrobe Department prepared him for the hectic pace of the movie effects industry. In 1981, he left NBC and started working for a short time in Sid and Marty Krofft’s shop, where he met Mark Siegel, who recommended him to design and construct the stillsuits for Dune. Soon thereafter, he was hired to fabricate and portray the Staypuft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters at Richard Edlund’s Boss Films. At Boss Films, Billy befriended Randy Cook and Steve Johnson, who each would eventually employ him at their respective FX studios, Cook’s Ruckus Inc. for 3 years and then Johnson’s XFX (later Edge FX) for over 15 years. In addition to his long tenure with Steve Johnson, Billy has shared his boundless imagination, problem-solving skills, and innovative fabrication talents with many of Hollywood’s leading character creators and FX shops, including Carlo Rambaldi, All Effects Company, Optic Nerve Studios, Proteus FX, MastersFX, KNB EFX, Alterian, Rick Baker’s Cinovation Studios, and nearly a year at Stan Winston Studio working on A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Jurassic Park 3.
Billy’s memorable creative contributions to movies can be seen in Men in Black, Jackass Forever, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Curse of Chucky, The Village, The Cat in the Hat, Bicentennial Man, Species 1 & 2, Army of Darkness, Pet Sematary II & Tenacious D In the Pick of Destiny, to name just a few.
