Born in Williamsport, PA. Woofruff's early interest in movies and monsters was a result of late-night broadcasts of the now classic Universal monster movies and the stop-motion effects of Ray Harryhausen. Finally, seeing one of the PLANET OF THE APES films in a theater focused his attention on the craft of make-up, while getting his hands on his father's 8mm home movie camera at 13 years old simultaneously encouraged his interest in filmmaking. While living so far from Hollywood, Tom's only professional contact was through the mail, writing letters to the artists who's work he admired most, like John Chambers, who created the PLANET OF THE APES make-ups. Woodruff finally made his move to Los Angeles in 1982. After a year of working with small make-up effects houses, he joined Stan Winston's team on THE TERMINATOR (1984). That was the beginning of a five-year period which saw he become a key coordinator under Winston, with the opportunity to work on such features as ALIENS (1986) and PREDATOR (1987). During this time, he began wearing the complicated make-ups and costumes of the creatures designed at the studio. His physical build and tolerance, as well as his ability to perform as an actor, led to his portraying the title characters in such movies as MONSTER SQUAD (1987), PUMPKINHEAD and LEVIATHAN (both 1989). During these years, Woodruff continued to write, ultimately teaming up with another of Winston's designer-technicians, Alec Gillis, to co-produce, write, and direct THE DEMON WITH THREE TALES, a promotional piece designed to sell a feature anthology project. Woodruff and Gillis quickly grew to become two of the major character effects talents in the business today, with their work gathering numerous accolades and awards including an Academy Award® for DEATH BECOMES HER (1992, Gillis unnamed in nomination) and multiple Academy Award nominations for STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997, Woodruff unnamed in nomination) and ALIEN3 (1992). Woodruff joined the Director's Guild in 1998, directing a number of segments for the Dick Clark series, "Beyond Belief" (1998-2000). In between effect-oriented productions. he and Gillis continue to write and develop their own personal projects; projects that will eventually see them not only as character effects and make-up artists, but also as filmmakers. To that end, Woodruff wrote, co-produced and directed MY COUSIN'S KEEPER (2007), a 15-minute short film in which he appeared with Tad Atkinson, Lance Henriksen and Derek Maki. See Alec Gillis' page for more extensive screen credits.  Best Achievement in Visual Effects 1992: DEATH BECOMES HER (w. Ken Ralston, Doug Chiang & Douglas Smythe)  Nominated for Achievement in Visual Effects 1992: ALIEN3 (w. Richard Edlund, Alec Gillis & George Gibbs) 2 nominations, 1 Award