And the Oscar goes to...a downhome Uxbridge gal

Lisha Van Nieuwenhove

Academy Award-winning hair designer Cliona Furey. Furey won the award for her work on Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. Photo submitted by Cliona Furey

While chatting Tuesday morning with Cliona Furey, one would never guess that, less than 48 hours earlier, she was handed an Academy Award by former Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and renowned actress Anne Hathaway.

‍ ‍Furey, along with Jordan Samuel and Mike Hill, received an Oscar on Sunday night for Best Makeup and Hairstyling in the 2025 movie Frankenstein.

“I’m still in shock,” said Furey on Tuesday from her home in Uxbridge. “I got very emotional (when they called our names). I wanted to cry! I was immediately transported back to 17-year-old me, asking her, “Did you ever think this would happen. Did you think you’d be here?” I would have said no! I don’t have words. I really didn’t expect it. The nomination was such a thrill and is a win already; any one of the teams (nominated) deserved to be the winner. I just enjoyed the ride.”

Despite having to spend Tuesday unpacking fancy gowns after a week in Los Angeles, the glamour of the film industry doesn’t appear to faze Furey at all, and she’s had plenty of exposure to it recently. In February, she, along with Samuel and Hill, won the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Film Award for Best Make Up & Hair, as well as the Critics Choice Award for Best Hair & Makeup (both for Frankenstein).

“I’m still just over the moon,” says Furey. “When we were on that stage, I was thrilled, and just thinking of the little girl on a farm in Goodwood.”

Furey refers to her childhood in Goodwood, where she grew up on a farm before moving into Uxbridge. The farm taught her a love for horses, which she says are her passion. So too is the film industry, a passion she found at a very early age. Her mother, Aine Furey, was a locations manager and often took Furey with her to work.

From left: Jordan Samuel (prosthetics), Cliona Furey (hair) and Mike Hill (makeup); holding their Oscars after winning Best Makeup and Hairstyling at Sunday’s ceremony. Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Film Magic/Getty Images

“She worked on the show The Littlest Hobo, and I was in the Girl Guide troop in Goodwood - and we got to be on the show! I was always on a film set as a kid, acting as a stand-in, or background. It was all I knew,” Furey recalls.

Furey originally wanted to do makeup, and people she knew in the industry let her shadow them on various shoots. She got a year-long apprenticeship with the Canadian Opera Company, and began working with the wigs. She became a wig maker, working for COC for years. She then transitioned to film, specializing in wigs for period films.

In 2011, she connected with Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro, and has worked as his hair designer since then.

“I feel so honoured to have been chosen by him to help make his vision (for his films) come to life,” she says.

Furey’s work can also be seen in the movies Priscilla and Nightmare Alley, as well as on TV series like Suits, IT: Welcome to Derry, and Gotham Knights, to name but a few. She regularly works for Netflix.

Furey says that she lives two different lives. One travels all over to work on famous actors, the other is here in Uxbridge.

“This is me, my life here. It’s completely different. I’ve been flying back and forth to Los Angeles, and then I come home to my son and my dog. I find it refreshing to come home. I talk to my childhood friends, my horse friends, about life in general. I don’t want to talk about famous people all the time. It’s not as glamourous as people think it is.”

Furey expresses how proud she is to be a Canadian in the industry, and is enthusiastic about the 16 Canadian Oscar nominees. She then mentions a female nominees-only event that was hosted by fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg, and casually mentions being in the same room as the likes of Demi Moore and Katy Perry.

Glamourous or not, there aren’t too many homes in Uxbridge that need a special cabinet made to hold an Oscar statuette, a BAFTA, and several other accolades, all of which will likely go in her wig room.

“I feel really proud of what I’ve done, and I want to honour these awards and what they mean. I don’t want to use them as a doorstop or something like that! And right now, I’m enjoying the afterglow.”