Rita Mae Sylvester is a hair and make up artist who got her start in New York City. Raised on Long Island, Rita’s craftiness was passed down to her by her grandmother and mother, who got her interested in art and taught her to sew at an early age. Rita started out dancing at age three, and soon developed a passion for stage makeup. As a child, Rita was fascinated by playing “dress up”; she never wanted to wear “normal clothing” and was always in costume and begging her mother for lipstick to go with the look. She and her mother would make their own costumes for Halloween, including a Christina Aguilera inspired ensemble when she was just eight. But of all her experiences, Rita defines the moment she saw Jim Carrey’s performance in The Mask as the one that made her know she wanted to be involved in creating and developing characters and helping bring them to life through production. Rita is a 2014 graduate of Marymount Manhattan College, where she started off majoring in acting, but would eventually graduate with a BA in Theatre Arts when she decided to take up costume design as her minor. After taking a winter class in stage makeup, she realized hair and makeup were her true passions. She both assisted with the costumes on several of Marymount’s mainstage productions, as well as served as Key Hair and Makeup Artist for the theatre department. Following her Marymount career, Rita worked as a freelance hair and makeup artist working on short films, theatre, and runway shows, before going back to school in 2016 at Make-Up Designory (MUD) to complete their master program. Throughout her extensive MUD training she developed dozens of characters and worked with preparing them for the camera.  Rita is consistently working on a wide array of shorts, features, music videos and commercials.  While she loves beauty make up and inspiring others to feel comfortable in their own skin, she is doing transformations behind the scenes with special effects. She specializes in blood rigs and gorge. Recently she was accepted into the make up union. She looks forward to evolving and refining her makeup skills, designing intricate characters, and she continues to seek out opportunities to collaborate in the art world.