Who is Cody Paul Updegrave?

My background began in the humble countryside of Maryland in the United States. The adopted son of a kind family who raised me to see the beauty in life and to help others. I began creating short films and sketches with my still collaborator Holden Boyles when we were just 5 years old. Throughout the following years I would learn and grow into an actor, writer, and director before finding my place as an innovative, multidisciplinary producer creating audio visual content in New York City, San Francisco, Beijing, Los Angeles and now, London.

Throughout the past two years, I have further honed my skills to create and expand my wide range of work, as well as the work of others, in film, television, interactive games, and immersive experiences. I specifically focus on evolving art, media, and products from one vertical to another across the creative industries and am well connected within the UK sphere of film, tv, games, XR, and VFX.

In February of 2024, I graduated from the National Film and Television School with a Master’s in Creative Business and a stable of IP ranging from two virtual production projects, a documentary utilizing animation, and an arthouse anthology film in partnership with my collaborator at the London Film School. I also won the Christie Award for Most Promising Student of 2022-2024.

In June of 2024, I co-founded The Ambiguous Company, a multi-disciplinary production company across film, television, games, and immersive content, where I oversee the vision and direction of our forward thinking startup.

Pushing the boundaries of creativity.

My main interest in producing content is to challenge the status quo in relation to storytelling, technology, and medium.

Be it creating perhaps the first virtual production to cast Inuit actors for authentic and respectful storytelling or shooting an anthology series with 8 worlds in one short film utilizing SFX, VFX, and AI alongside traditional film techniques and talent or a documentary blending live action and animation.

  • While the world of cinema stole my heart from a young age, I am increasing excited by the growth in interactive games, experiences, and XR (extended reality) and have plans to expand the language of film into these emerging areas.

  • At the age of 5, my current business partner and I met in the Cub Scouts organization and made a 10 minute Christmas puppet show with a rap ballad between Mr. and Mrs. Klaus. Following that monumental day, I learned that the creative act would allow me to build things with humor, emotion, and eventually profound meaning, which could potentially make the world even a touch more beautiful and worth living in.

  • To date I have developed and produced approximately 40 projects in the realm of film, television, video games, music videos, branded content, commercial, and live entertainment.

  • Following my expansive two years at the NFTS studying cross media and entrepreneurship, I am beyond excited to utilize the incredibly timed study of emerging technology in media, in particular AI and Virtual Production, to pave the way towards content unlike anything ever seen or possible in the UK (and hopefully global) content marketplace.

  • Cross media may be an unfamiliar term, in short these producers create content in more fields than one, be it theatre, film, television, games, publishing, music, or other forms of media.