About Nick Maley

Nick is an Emmy-nominated Special Make-up & Creature FX Designer/Director, author, artist, and motivational speaker, affectionately known as "That Yoda Guy" for his celebrated role in the creation of the iconic Jedi Master for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Born in London to a theatrical family, Nick was immersed in the entertainment world from an early age, learning stage make-up at seven, participating in school plays.

He was an awkward kid who didn't fit the mould at school; struggling with dyslexia and attention deficit at a time educators recognized neither. His solution to not fitting the path society laid out for him was to create his own pathway, and by the time he was 19, he was teaching theatrical make-up at Middlesex University and four other drama schools around London.

His career in film began in 1969 at MGM's UK studios. A protégé of legendary make-up artist Stuart Freeborn, Whilst working with Stuart, Nick played a hands-on role creating the creatures and character effects for the Classic Star Wars Trilogy, Gene Roddenberry's Spectre, and Superman I & II. He has contributed to 65 films/videos to date including A Bridge Too Far, Krull, Highlander, Duran Duran's Grammy-winning Wild Boys video, horror cult classics The Shining, Michael Mann's The Keep, and Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce, for which he directed second unit.

He married actress Gloria Walker in 1978 and she became an important contributor to many of Nick's projects. Together they wrote the screenplay Inseminoid in 1980, but were so unhappy with the final movie that they requested their names be removed from the credits.

. Having earned an Emmy nomination for transforming Sir Anthony Hopkins into The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Nick's movie work was featured in HBO/Cinemax specials, American Cinematographer, Cinefantastique, Fangoria, Fantastic Films, and gained a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

At the age of 35, Nick and his wife Gloria traded their Ferrari for a sailboat and embarked on a Caribbean adventure, later founding the Island Arts Galleries in Antigua. Over the next 10 years, Nick's artwork gained international recognition, with exhibitions at venues such as the prestigious Surf Club in Miami Beach, The Shooting Gallery in New York City, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Museo de Arte Modern in the Dominican Republic, the Museum of the Americas in Washington DC, and was featured in UNESCO's Carib Art world tour.

But Nick was not finished with film. After directing projects for ABS TV and Black n Black Fashions, he formed his Caribbean based production company Impossible Dreams Media in 1995, and returned to LA to direct two music videos, winning awards at the 29th Worldfest Houston International Film Festival in 1996.

In 2007 he moved his home base to Sint Maarten and in 2011, founded the Yoda Guy Movie Exhibit - an award-winning, nonprofit museum designed to inspire young visitors to follow their dreams. As Nick spends much of his time working on projects around the place, talking to tourists, and signing their purchases, the non profit enterprise has become known as the Yoda Guy Movie Experiance where fans gather to ask questions about movies and living an extraordinary life. Today it is the #1 rated Thing To Do in Philipsburg on TripAdvisor, winner of multiple Traveler's Choice Awards, and was inducted into TripAdvisor's Hall of Fame in 2019.

In 2014, Nick gave a name to the charity work he had been doing for over a decade. The Follow Your Star Foundation was officially declared to be the charitable wing on The Yoda Guy Movie Experience, helping sick and impoverished individuals, mostly children, in countries where parents don't earn enough to buy medications or schoolbooks. One protege, an 8 year old epileptic girl without money for school in 2007, graduated as a medical doctor in 2023

Lucasfilm honored Nick in 2015 when they named one of the Mos Eisley Cantina characters "Demono DeoMaley" for his work on the Classic Star Wars Trilogy and his tireless contributions to the Lucasfilm Archive providing details about the UK creature build for A New Hope. Also that year, Nick took part in three Star Wars concerts with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra which was later named one of the top three cultural events in PR for 2015.

2016 he began reverse engineering a perfect rebuild of the back-up animatronic Yoda that he built in 1979, and which was used for 80% of Yoda's scenes. The rebuild was completed in 2021 and he takes it to speaking events, Comic Cons, schools and children's hospitals in an effort to inspire youngsters.

Expanding his creative pursuits, Nick has authored three books: Words & Pictures (2010), The Do or Do Not Outlook (2018) - motivational insights described by the publisher as "A Jedi's guide to self empowerment," and Fangs: The Blood, a character driven novel that he wrote with Gloria which reinvents the vampire.

Now in his seventies, he remains active in the creative community, doing panels at conventions, anticipating more novels, writing music. He created exclusive special features for the UHD 4K Blu-ray releases of Lifeforce - Collector's Edition from Shout! Factory (2021) and the long awaited The Keep from Vinegar Syndrome (2024,) and the delux Imprint editions of both movies.

As if all that was not enough, 2026 sees Nick forming The Force For Good, a volunteer organization with the aim of bringing balance to a world where more and more people behave as if being selfish and aggressive is a virtue. The organization encourages caring attitudes within member's communities, support for The Follow Your Star Foundation, and respect for others of all religions, politics, and races.

more info at...

Guided by his belief that "you have to think big to achieve big," Nick remains a passionate creator and motivator, continuing to inspire fans, artists, and youngsters across the globe.