Tanja Mandich
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).

Justene Musin
Front Of House

Can someone spell “overachiever”? Yes. Justene can.

Justene has a BA in Film, TV, Media Studies and Psychology, a BA (Hons) in Film, TV and Media Studies, and a PGDip in Screen Production.

She’s produced, written, directed, edited and co-written music for loads of short films, worked onset and offset in art department, unit, and as a 2nd AD. She’s worked for South Pacific Pictures, Greenstone, Solid Rock Media and Satellite Media. She danced ballet, jazz and contemporary for 14 years and likes photography. Oh, and she plays the clarinet.

Not only this, Justene has nailed using our coffee machine. No kidding. It’s unreal.

Samantha Jukes
Producer
Head of Facilities

Samantha's seen post-production from many sides. She’s worked agencyside and clientside, and on both sides of the camera and microphone.

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.

In early 2011, Sam joined the ranks at Envy. She loves the natural light, the incredibly high calibre of studios, engineers and artists, and the genuinely good, real people.

Outside of 55 Anzac, Sam acts, runs, 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
Senior Audio Engineer
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, Republik 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

Just south of Auckland, in a little wee town called South Auckland, Jason Fox was born and raised.

He took a working holiday to London for 10 years, where he met his wife, became fluent in French (he lived in the French Quarter), and studied audio engineering at SAE. So lucky, and lucky to be talented and hardworking, was he, that he gained a position as an audio engineer at the internationally renowned Zoo Studios in Soho, London, one of London’s most popular and busy Commercial Audio Post houses.

In ’03, Jason came back to the long white cloud with this newfandangled London-style tape deck in tow, and settled in for six years at Images and Sound. There, he worked on commercials, corporate, docos, reality and drama, including Intrepid Journeys, Police Ten 7, Motorway Patrol, Radars Patch, NZ Idol, Diplomatic Immunity, and the 10-part drama Interrogation.

In 2011, we at Envy Studios were lucky enough to lure him across to become our second in-house senior audio engineer.

When he’s not sitting in a dark room, Jason loves travelling, fishing, golf, movies and good times with good friends.

Susan Bridges
Editor

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 in 2010 to work towards her post-grad diploma in digital media (including video-production, 3D animation and web development), and got her foot in the door at Envy as our Front of House.

With her quick wits, natural calm and great creative and technical talents, it wasn’t long until we promoted her to in-house editor, where she makes us proud as punch on a daily basis.

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

James Dean
Studio Coordinator

Don’t let the fact James has a little bunny wunny called Honey fool you; this dude is badass.

James plays guitar and sings in metal band, Evangel, and plays his own solo acoustic “junk”, too. The writer is not sure if this is a genre, or simply a way of saying “stuff”. Either way, it’s further evidence of the badness of James’ ass.

He also digs video games, 8 bit graphics, skateboarding, BMX and soccer.

James is married to Sama, and together they make badass cider and ginger beer. Which by all accounts is very good.

James has just graduated from two years at MAINZ studying audio engineering, and has a further year under his belt studying guitar and vocals at performing arts school.

We picked him up as an audio intern in September, and there was no going past his talent, intelligence and dedication. We were impressed. So when an opportunity came up in our Facilities department, we jumped at the chance to make him a part of the team on a permanent basis. That’s right, James. Permanent. Your badass is going nowhere.

Nadeeka Acri
Company Accountant

It’s going to get harder and harder to sign off Nadeeka’s leave forms as she works towards spending half the year in New Zealand and half of it in Cinque Terre, Italy.

Nadeeka finished her degree in accounting and HR in 2004, and followed her then-boyfriend, now-husband, to Italy where she lived in La Spezia for six years teaching English and learning Italian, how to cook, and how to yell at a football game.

In 2011, she and her husband, along with their young daughter, moved back to Auckland. Nadeeka retuned to study, and gained her Graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting. While studying, she worked part-time with us here at Envy as our Assistant Accountant, and we were lucky enough to gain her as our full-time accountant once she finished acing her exams.

Nadeeka’s half-way to becoming a chartered accountant, and is all-the-way a dedicated Mum and wife. With such a gorgeous and delightful daughter, and a husband with his own authentic Italian pizza restaurant, we can see the attraction.

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.

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!