Kiko Macan: New Headshots at the Los Angeles Studio (Rory Lewis Photographer 2026)
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.
Born in Spain with Croatian roots, Kiko crossed the Atlantic at sixteen and trained at the Michael Chekhov Actors Studio in Boston before making his stage debut at the American Repertory Theater in Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana — sharing the boards with no less than James Earl Jones. Behind the camera, his short films Arise, The Science of the Unknown and the forthcoming Hamlet Nowadays mark him out as a filmmaker with a literary streak, which suits me fine.
We shot two distinct looks. The first, a clean commercial headshot — black tee, soft grey seamless, even light across the face — the workhorse image every casting director wants on the breakdown. Honest, direct, no theatrics. The second was where we had our fun: a distressed leather jacket, the collar turned up, and the light pulled hard to one side against a deep graphite backdrop. There is a touch of the Old Masters in it, naturally — I can rarely resist — the shadow doing as much work as the light, the eyes carrying the frame. It is the portrait of a man who directs Hamlet, not merely one who auditions.
Kiko Macan: New Headshots at the Los Angeles Studio (Rory Lewis Photographer 2026)