Biography

James Philpott is an award-winning production designer with over 30 years of professional experience. Most recently, he worked on Hulu's newest murder mystery, Death and Other Details, starring Mandy Patinkin, and CTV's crime drama Sight Unseen.

Previously, James served as a production designer on the award-winning independent feature Bones of Crows, which follows Cree code talker Aline Spears, who, after surviving a traumatic past in Canada's residential school system, continues her family's generational fight against systemic starvation, racism, and sexual abuse. The work on Bones of Crows earned him a Leo Award and his first Directors Guild of Canada Award nomination.

James is also noted for his work on Smallville, which earned him two Leo Awards and six more nominations, and The 100, for which he was also recognized with two more nominations for Leo Awards. His other credits include nearly a dozen television pilots, including the NBC show Debris. He first started as a set designer, and the mix of hands-on experience and his architectural background helped him become a versatile production designer.

James Philpott is known for his meticulous and grand world-building. He believes that a fully realized world sets the tone of a story and facilitates more immersive acting performances. James blends his background in aesthetics with a thorough technical grounding in construction and VFX. He understands that production design is the art of building the world in which a story is told.

After completing his bachelor's degree in art and art history from the University of Toronto, James worked in the fashion industry for several years before completing a degree in Architecture at the University of British Columbia.

- IMDb mini biography by: James M Philpott