Rory Lewis Photographer Headshots & Portraiture

Graham’s new series, Nocturne, makes its global debut on Friday, October 30, 2026 with the first two episodes, with new episodes every Friday through December 25 on Apple TV. Originally titled Lazarus, the 10-episode drama was written by Rowan Joffe and John Hlavin and also stars Liev Schreiber and Zazie Beetz. Schreiber plays Jonah Lynn, a former soldier turned homicide detective who leaves Philadelphia for a quiet life in a small Western Pennsylvania town, only for the town and his family to come under attack from the serial killer Jurek Walter, played by Graham

Following portrait sessions across Los Angeles and New York, I am returning to my Central London studio from 11 to 24 November for a dedicated run of actor headshot sittings.

In an industry where casting directors form an impression in the fraction of a second a thumbnail appears on Spotlight, a headshot cannot simply document your likeness. It must reveal character, communicate presence, and establish immediate credibility.

On Thursday 12 November 2026, I am giving my Central London studio over entirely to thirty-minute update sessions.It is the only date I will offer them in London this year.

Each session is two looks and one image, fully retouched.

A return sitting at the Downtown Los Angeles studio, and the case for every actor owning a villain.

Chauncey Alan has played Caesar. This time he came back to the Los Angeles studio wanting to be Cassius.

Not literally, but the brief was close. Chauncey needed a villainous headshot for his castings: one image that tells a casting director, in the half-second a thumbnail gets, that he can be trusted with the man nobody should trust. Shakespeare gave Caesar the line that describes exactly what we were after: “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; / He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”

Christian Bell stepped into the Downtown Los Angeles studio carrying a look that immediately commands attention. The striking two-tone afro — rich dark curls giving way to a crown of silver-white — became the defining feature of the session, but it was the face beneath it that made the images sing.

Travis Quentin Young brought the full weight of his Louisiana upbringing and Los Angeles-honed versatility into the Downtown Los Angeles studio. Born in Lake Charles and already performing on national television by the age of ten, Young carries a quiet authority that belies his years on screen.

Billy Hirsch arrived at the Downtown Los Angeles studio with the same unfiltered energy that defines his work. Brooklyn-born and now a Southern California transplant, he carries that unmistakable East Coast edge softened by West Coast ease — a combination that makes him instantly compelling on camera.

One day of thirty-minute update headshots in Midtown Manhattan — two looks, one image fully retouched, and the only date I am offering them in New York this year.

People sometimes ask me why an actor should sit for a headshot with a portrait photographer rather than a headshot photographer. It is a fair question, and the honest answer is that the distinction shouldn't exist. A headshot is a portrait — it is simply a portrait with a job to do. It has to walk into a casting director's inbox at nine in the morning, sit alongside three hundred others, and make somebody stop scrolling. That is not achieved with a white seamless and a ring light. It is achieved by looking properly at a face, understanding what it does, and lighting it the way the old masters lit theirs: with intent.

Two days of sittings in Midtown on 17 and 18 September, at Young Studio on 8th Avenue, followed by the New York masterclass on the Saturday. Actors, executives and commissioned portraits — one light, dark ground, as always.

On Friday 11 September 2026 I am opening the Downtown Los Angeles studio for a single day of thirty-minute headshot update sessions. Each one gives you two looks and one retouched image, and it is the only date this year I will offer them.

There is a particular pleasure in photographing an actor who has spent time in the eighteenth century. Tom Connolly leads the feature film Love, Courage and the Battle of Bushy Run as Colonel Henry Bouquet, the Swiss-born British Army officer whose victory at Bushy Run opened the road to the relief of Fort Pitt. The battle was fought, as it happens, in the first week of August, two hundred and sixty-three years ago this month.

14 August – 17 September 2026 · 411 S Main Street, Unit 222, Downtown Los Angeles

My Los Angeles diary is open from 14 August to 17 September, and I am now taking bookings for headshot sessions, commissioned portrait sittings, and private tuition. After 17 September I return to London and New York, and these are the last extended Los Angeles dates before the autumn.

There is a particular kind of face the camera waits for. Not the arranged one, not the face that performs readiness the moment a lens appears, but the one that carries a thought behind the eyes and lets you watch it move. Michael DelaFlor brought exactly that into my New York studio, and it made the work a pleasure.

I return to New York this August. From Saturday 9 to Wednesday 13 August, my studio at 580 8th Avenue — twenty floors above the Garment District, a few minutes' walk from Times Square and the theatre houses — will be open for actor headshots, portrait sittings, and corporate headshots.

There are faces the camera simply agrees with, and Fedly Daniel has one of them. He came to my Midtown Manhattan studio (580 8th Avenue, 20th Floor) for a new set of actor headshots, and from the first frame the session had that quality I'm always chasing — stillness with something moving underneath.

There's a particular pleasure in a sitter you clock the moment they come through the door, and Alex Wyndham was one of them — Maecenas himself, Octavian's silken fixer from the second season of Rome, standing in my Downtown LA studio some seventeen years on and none the worse for it. I confess I said as much straight away, which is not always the done thing with actors, but there it was. One doesn't forget a face that spent a whole season murmuring political poison into a young Caesar's ear.

The stage actor's face, and what a camera asks of it

There is a particular ease to photographing an actor who has spent real time on a stage. The instrument is already tuned. Francis Price came to the Main Street studio with exactly that — a classically trained presence that knows how to hold stillness without going dead behind the eyes, which is the whole quiet art of a good headshot.

There's a particular kind of session that arrives when an actor steps back into the room after time away. The face is the same. The man behind it isn't — and the work, if it's any good, has to hold both.

Brian Kolb came to the Main Street studio to mark exactly that: a return to acting after a break, and the new narrative that comes with it. The brief was not one look, but range — the proof a casting director needs that a man can be cast in more than a single drawer. So we built six, and we built them to argue with each other.

Spent an afternoon at the Downtown studio with actor Elvis Winterbottom, in for a set of headshots built to carry across casting briefs. We talked a great deal between setups, and he turned out to be genuinely interesting company, the kind of sitter who makes the hours run away from you. We worked through a deliberate range of looks: a plain dark tee and mock neck for the stripped-back theatrical frames, a navy waffle knit, a tailored blazer over a soft blue shirt for the producer and executive read, and a weathered leather jacket for something with more grit. One man, several characters, which is exactly what a working actor needs the camera to hold.

I had the privilege this week of photographing Babs Olusanmokun in my London studio, and as I worked I found myself thinking, not for the first time, about how often I get to say that word — privilege — about the Black actors who find their way to my chair.

There is a particular quiet that settles over a portrait sitting when the subject is, by trade, a maker of sound. The performer who fills a room — who has stood in front of seventeen thousand people at the Coca-Cola Arena and held them — arrives in my studio and discovers that the only instrument I am asking him to play is his own stillness. Nick Pritchard understood this faster than most.

There is a particular satisfaction in taking down a body of work you have looked at for too long and replacing it with something better. I have just done exactly that. The headshot portfolio has been rebuilt from the ground up — newer sittings, harder edits, a great deal that didn't make the cut. What's left is, I think, the strongest the studio has put out.

Kiko Macan came to the Downtown Los Angeles studio this week for new headshots, and I was rather pleased he did. Kiko is one of those sitters who arrives with two careers in his pocket — actor and director — which makes the session a more interesting puzzle than usual. A headshot for an actor sells presence; a portrait for a director sells authority. We set out to do both.

Some sitters arrive at the studio with a CV; Jacobo Fe Gismera arrived with a biography that reads like one of his own screenplays. A Spaniard in Los Angeles by way of UCLA, he was the youngest novelist in Spain to publish in the historical genre, putting out his peplum novel Perfectus Imperator at nineteen, the same age he began a modelling career that has since run to hundreds of publications across a dozen or more countries.

Elevate your professional brand by working with a photographer trusted by icons like Sir Patrick Stewart. With work acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, Rory Lewis brings museum-grade authority and cinematic excellence to the Los Angeles headshot market, providing actors with the prestigious visual edge required for high-level TV and film casting.

Rory Lewis specializes in award-winning

cinematic and theatrical headshots in his permanentDowntown Los Angeles studio. His signature use of dramatic lighting helps actors land roles in prestige TV/Film, distinguishing his work—which is acquired by theNational Portrait Gallery—from generic commercial photography.

For emerging talent in Los Angeles, a headshot is more than just a photo—it’s a digital handshake with casting directors at Paramount, Disney, and Netflix. Navigating the Hollywood industry requires a specific "look" that balances authenticity with commercial appeal. At my Downtown LA studio, I specialize in helping new actors find their brand through cinematic, character-driven portraiture.

Los Angeles pilot season has begun, and award-winning British photographer Rory Lewis offers cinematic actor headshots in Los Angeles designed to stand out with casting directors and agents. Working from his Downtown LA studio, Rory creates professional actor headshots that emphasize presence, authenticity, and emotional range—ideal for film, television, and commercial casting. With over twenty years of experience photographing world-class actors, Rory Lewis delivers high-end LA actor headshots tailored for pilot season submissions, agency representation, and career-defining moments in today’s competitive entertainment industry.

In the competitive landscape of the Los Angeles entertainment industry, your headshot is your first—and often only—audition before you even step into the room. While I am widely recognized for my moody, high-drama cinematic portraits of icons like Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen, I understand that for many actors, the "Foundation" set requires a specific balance: Agency-preferred commercial lighting paired with artistic depth.

New Year, New Headshots — Pilot Season Schedule Now Live 🎭

Actors Headshots in Los Angeles

A great actor headshot does more than show your face — it communicates presence, range, and intention. In an industry where first impressions matter instantly, your headshot must feel truthful, confident, and unmistakably you.

Rory Lewis’s approach to actors headshots is rooted in cinematic lighting, refined direction, and an unwavering focus on authenticity. Each session is designed to reveal natural type, emotional depth, and versatility across theatrical, commercial, and character-driven looks — without over-performance or distraction.

Foundation Headshot Package with Rory Lewis

Students in Los Angeles can now receive 10% off Rory Lewis’ Foundation Headshot Session when booking online. Simply use promo code STUDENT10 at checkout via the online scheduling system.