Tanja Mandich
Managing Director

Tanja may well have the widest collection of interesting jobs out of any of us here at Envy. She's worked as an Electronics and Digital Electronics teacher, a graphic designer and 3D animator, an accountant and a Mum.

In 1995, she and husband Dan packed up all their things, including three year old Stefan, and moved from Zagreb, Croatia to Auckland, New Zealand.

The clan has since grown by three: one daughter, Katarina, and two dogs, Ana and Gina.

Outside of work Tanja enjoys indoor and beach volleyball, and walking her furry children on Mairangi beach. She's immensely close with her family, and proud of her kids and their talents in basketball. She'd also like them to stop ripping their ACLs and get off crutches (guys, if you're reading this).

Michelle Joe
Studio Co-ordinator

In April 2010 Tanja got a call from a girl fresh out of university and dead keen to get a taste of our industry. Something just felt right. Next thing you know, Envy Studios (nee Auckland Audio) has a new front of house person, and next thing you know after that, Michelle's moved her way up to co-ordinate our bookings.

Michelle has a Bachelor of Communications (Creative Industries and Public Relations) from AUT. She's recently revived an old love, beginning Meisner Technique acting classes and signing with Auckland Actors.

She loves snowboarding, travelling, writing, speaks Cantonese and is impossibly good-natured, calm and organised. And she wrote this herself. Okay so she didn't.

Samantha Jukes
Head of Facilities

Samantha's seen post-production from many sides.

She's written scripts, she's a voice artist and she's directed voices, she's worked agencyside and clientside, she's researched and developed show proposals, and she acts.

In 2002 Sam graduated with a BA (first class hons in Philosophy) from the University of Otago. After four years in the public service she realised she'd just spent four years in the public service, and moved to Auckland and into audio post at Liquid Studios.

Now, instead of singing of "red and yellow and pink and green" she's singing of floating point colour. Sam produces the video jobs at Envy and still dabbles her adorable toes in audio.

She loves Envy's natural light, the incredibly high calibre of studios, engineers and artists, and the genuinely good, real people. It's become a personal challenge to see if she can get someone to really melt down.

Sam acts, plays guitar, likes a contemplative Scotch, and is trying to kick off production on a short film she wrote (Mexico here she possibly comes).

Vedat Kiyici
Head of Sound & Technology

Vedat has a midas touch with anything audio or technology related.

He grew up in Istanbul, Turkey with two brothers and a sister. In 1994, he packed up his guitar and his punk rock LPs and split to New York to get into the audio game. After graduating the Institute of Audio Research, he started his career in the music industry working with both local talent and big international names.

Nine years later, Vedat moved to New Zealand and Auckland Audio (now Envy Studios). Since joining the company, he's worked on projects including Man vs Wild, Intrepid Journeys, River Queen, and countless radio and TV commercials. His client list includes Warner Bros., Walt Disney, Lucas Arts, SONY Music, The Sweetshop, Droga 5, Saatchi & Saatchi and Draft FCB.

When he's not in the studio he likes creating audio plugins, kayak fishing, camping, and teaching his 4-year-old daughter, Ela, everything she needs to know about technology (oh, and general life skills and morals).

Jason Fox
Senior Audio Engineer

Jason hails from Africa, where he learned to ride an elephant at two, and to speak with the elephants in their own language before he could speak Xosa, English or Afrikaans.

He counts the members of 80s pop sensation "Colour Me Bad" amongst his closest friends, and hopes one day to accompany them on a tour of the east coast of Australia.

When he's not in the studio, Jason can be found working on his choral compositions or knitting peggy squares for the next war.

Jason didn't get around to providing information for this bio.

Susan Bridges
Dubbing Engineer

There's something rock about a girl who can cut sound and pictures. Just saying.

Suz earned her BA in Film, TV and Media Studies at Auckland University, then took off overseas for three years to study in Canada, au pair in Switzerland, and travel.

She returned last year to work towards her post-grad diploma in digital media (including video-production, VFX, 3D animation and web development), and joined us at Envy as our Front of House.

With her quick wits, natural calm and great creative and technical talents, it's been a real pleasure having her move into a supportive role for our audio and video teams.

Suz loves photography, painting, travelling, film making, web design (she coded this website), kittens, and her part-time job as a spy.

Shoshana McCallum
Front of House

Shoshana grew up on a vineyard in Martinborough and is an actor. She is Sam Neil.

In 2007 she moved to New York, New York to study the Meisner acting technique at the highly-esteemed Neighbourhood Playhouse, and returned to New Zealand last year to continue studying with Michael Saccente and pursue her second passion, writing.

Shosh teaches dance through StarJam, and loves running, animals, and the beach - anything that gets her outdoors.

With her intelligence, flair, personality and off-the-wall sense of humour (is it deliberate? we just don't know), we were rapt she decided to take a regular real person job to compliment her creative work.

And she loves it, which is a bonus.

Miquel Ubeda
VFX Supervisor

Miquel does not look like this kitten.

Miquel's dad is from Barcelona and his Mum is a kiwi. He was born in New Zealand and sneaked away to London for a few years to work on films at places like Moving Picture Company and Cinesite before coming back to Weta, Fish Digital, Pacific Renaissance Pictures and most recently, and thankfully, us.

You'll usually find Miquel behind a desk in a dark room somewhere. When he's not, he's usually watching his favorite football team, Barcelona, sweep up trophies, watching movies or playing on his PS3. When he's not doing all this he's working on his own indy film: a sci fi feature which happens to have Samantha Jukes as a supporting actor and Sam Scott in various roles including VFX artist.

You'll see his work in films such as the Golden Compass, the Da Vinci Code, Corpse Bride, X Men: First Class, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. You'll also see it in ads such as recent brand campaigns for ASB and Vodafone. You'll also see it in his reels, if you give us a bell and jack up a viewing.

Tamara Nicholson
Accountant

Coming soon!

Sam Scott
3D Supervisor

Sam's like a dog with a bone. He won't leave a project alone until it's done and done well. Sleeping and eating are optional extras.

Sam gained a BSc from the University of Otago and Canterbury University, and started in the industry on Xena Warrior Princess, Hercules and Cleopatra 2525. He worked at Pacific Rennaisance Pictures until it closed down (not personally responsible for that), and PRPVFX after that. He spent eight years as Development Manager at Virtual Spectator, and six years in international live and post television around the world.

Sam's married to Lisa, and they have two very cute children available for ad campaigns, photo shoots and children's parties: Zac (3) and Sarah (ten months).

Hailing from Napier, Hawkes Bay, Sam says "Let me know if you need more. I'm not overly quirky!". That crazy cat!