About Blazing Fig

Blazing Fig was launched by Elizabeth Starkey as a unique studio that embraces a love for analog and experimental creative techniques as a way to bravely stand out from the repetitive, familiar, and mundane.

Who’s Behind the Brand

For over 16 years, I’ve worked in creative for leading entertainment and media brands and agencies including NBCUniversal (Bravo, Oxygen), ViacomCBS (MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon), EPIX, AMC, “The Dr. Oz Show”, People, Entertainment Weekly, the New York Post, Condé Nast, Food Network, Comic Relief, Gawker Media, the Upright Citizens Brigade, AKA NYC, VidMob, Snap Inc, and Situation Interactive, among many others.

While studying film and video at the Atlanta College of Art, I was always captivated and inspired by experimental video projects. Many of my projects included stop motion and analog techniques, heavily influenced by the work of Michel Gondry. With a particular interest in music videos and their ability to create a new, experimental world within several magical minutes, I earned a music video production internship at Partizan where I had the opportunity to work closely with Olivier Gondry and other noted directors within the genre. I graduated from ACA with the highest honors, backed by award-winning music videos and other experimental projects that blend stop motion and live-action.

My work tends to incorporate some degree of humor, leading me to study improv and sketch comedy, first at Whole World Theatre and Dad’s Garage in Atlanta and later at the Upright Citizens Brigade, Magnet Theater, and the PIT in New York. I was eventually selected as a director and director of photography for one of UCB’s highly competitive sketch teams, encouraging me to combine my interests in video and comedy to create content for the popular brand.

I’ve continued to fuel my diverse interest in the arts through drawing, painting, inking, comics, and music classes as well as writing and illustrating a children’s book. I’m currently working on a large-scale art installation as part of a group exhibition.

After many years of working on a diverse array of video, design, and animation projects for clients in television, media, Broadway, and more, I created Blazing Fig to focus upon the types of projects that have always been the most exciting and gratifying for me as an artist, director, and creator: the studio fuses an enthusiasm for stop motion, experimental live-action, and fine arts with a sense of personality, spirit, character, and humor.

About the Name

Blazing Fig first existed briefly in the early aughts as a band that was named after a rock-inspired plant. The domain was gifted to me for a birthday by my friends and bandmates, and the name stuck for years, mostly as an internet handle. It’s a nod to my idealist aspirations from art school, during a time when I recognized the type of work that I wanted to create and am now embracing with the confidence, experience, and insight of someone with an accomplished creative career to ensure its success. The name is also an homage to a lasting friendship distinguished by encouragement, support, and a healthy dose of eccentricity.