Ollie Rankin is a virtual reality storyteller and visual effects supervisor whose feature film career spans 20 years and 26 films. His background in programming and specifically the field of artificial intelligence led him into what was then the brand new discipline of “crowd simulation”, building virtual brains and choreographing battle sequences for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

He went on to be involved in many of cinema’s biggest franchises, from the Matrix trilogy, to the X-Men, Transformers and Alice in Wonderland series. But he had fallen in love with VR in the 80s when it was little more than a figment in the imaginations of visionary Sci-fi and cyberpunk authors. He’s spent the last several years working in various capacities to help realize their visions.

Since 2014, Ollie has been involved in the creative and technical execution of over a dozen VR & AR projects, from interactive narrative and educational experiences, to immersive music videos and multiplayer mixed reality games.

He is currently developing original interactive narrative content with his VR production company, Pansensory Interactive, including Downloaded, which is currently screening on the international festival circuit and was listed by Forbes as one of the 50 best XR experiences of 2019.

Ollie is also an advocate and activist for diversity, fairness, sustainability and the environment, through his non-profit From the Trees to the Stars