Noël Hernandez is an Emmy-nominated makeup artist for film and television who lives in Dunwoody. She’s been in the industry for nine years, and like many professionals in the beauty and cosmetics industry, Hernandez transitioned from a longtime position with Sephora to applying makeup to the faces of TV and movie actors.
She doesn’t sugarcoat the tough journey she made, getting from a stable job with Sephora to another stable job protected by the film and TV union. Hernandez says, “I found many makeup jobs, many of which also did not pay or barely paid, and I did as many as I could to gather as much experience and hours so that I could submit all of that to the film and television union for makeup and hair. And that was a three-year period of time before I finally got in.”
But now, Hernandez has as much work as she can handle getting actors ready on set for their shoots, and despite grueling schedules, it’s a rewarding and creative career. “The cool thing about the job is that we really tell a story with each and every character that we work on,” Hernandez says. “We have to make sure that each actor is looking like their character, whether it’s through the use of appropriate makeup for a certain era or period, or if it’s applying prosthetics, and/or trauma makeup … By the time they sit in our chair, we are already knowing what this character needs to look like and how they need to present themselves.”
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