Growing up in rural Ontario, the son of an artist mother and a social worker father, Rory found himself exploring the nearby woods as a curious young boy and creating his own adventures. As a young adult, Rory spent his summers working as a wilderness guide in Northern Canada, on the shores of James Bay. The summers proved lucrative, as he was able to save money to enrol at the prestigious Ontario College of Art and Design in downtown Toronto where he studied Environmental Design.
Upon graduating college, Rory worked in Toronto on various retail and residential projects for interior design firms (example Canadian embassy in Berlin), but it wasn’t long before he found himself working in the TV commercial/music video industry. After honing his art department skills as a set designer and Art Director for many years, Rory was offered the opportunity to take over the Production Design on the NBC series “Hannibal” during their third season. Following the success of “Hannibal”, Rory went on to design for various TV series such as “American Gods” (Amazon Prime), “Locke and Key” (Netflix), and “Cardinal”, for which he was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award.
Through out the years Rory was able to work on several projects outside of the film industry. In 2002, he had a key role in the concept design for multiple stages, as well as the overall creative look for World Youth Day. The event hosted over 1 million people in Toronto, including the late Pope John Paul II, whom he had the honour of meeting. He also led a design team in creating and executing trade show exhibits for the Green Living Show. In 2004 living in New York City Rory was able to collaborate on various industrial design projects in the redevelopment of lower manhattans street lighting design.
For the past two years Rory has been an integral part of the global team on “Foundation,” working diligently to bring to life the worlds that were created by Isaac Asimov. Leading design and construction teams in five different countries, “Foundation” will be a journey that will take the viewer into worlds they never knew existed.
When not working Rory can be found trekking cross country on one of his Motorcycles.