Donald Mowat was born and raised in Montreal, Canada to British parents and has gone on to be a highly accomplished motion picture makeup artists/designer. He maintains an international reputation of stellar work with more than seventy feature films and twenty five television projects over a career that spans nearly four decades.

He has received numerous awards and nominations from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, including a 1992 Primetime Emmy award, two Saturn Awards, a Special Achievement Gemini Award, Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and The Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers in 2018 for his work with BAFTA Los Angeles youth filmmaker education and mentorship. He has also received a record ten Make-up Artists & Hairstylists Guild Awards nominations, winning twice for Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners in 2014 and Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals in 2017, respectively.

A three-time British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) nominee and Academy Award (Oscar) nominee, his long list of credits as Makeup Department Head/Designer or Personal Makeup Artist include Moon Knight, First Man, Blade Runner 2049, Nocturnal Animals, Spectre, Skyfall, Nightcrawler, Prisoners, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Fighter, The Departed, Sicario, 8 Mile, Three Kings, Mimic, Fly Away Home, Margaret’s Museum, The Perfect Storm, The Yards and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune for which he was the Makeup Department Head/Hair and Makeup and prosthetics Designer.
Upcoming releases include Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, and the highly anticipated Dune Part Two.

Donald is an active member of IATSE New York, Toronto, Montreal and Los Angeles. He served three terms on the Board of Directors for the Actors’ Fund of Canada (AFC, 2008–2014) and was elected to the National Board of Directors for The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, representing the Art Department for two terms (2007–2011). During his tenure on the Board, he was instrumental in the creation of an annual makeup category for the Gemini and Genie Awards (now the Canadian Screen Awards).

Donald is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (invited 1999) serving the maximum twelve year term limit on the Executive Makeup Branch Committee and is active in the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, both in LA and London.

He is a dedicated guest speaker, having appeared at Pixar, Middleburg Film Festival, Savannah College of Art and Design, Falmouth University, the University of Northampton, College of Makeup Art and Design, and continues to serve on student film award panels for the AMPAS and BAFTA.

In May 2022 Donald was appointed a member to the Order of Canada.