From Mutare to Hollywood: Meet the man behind Game of Thronesaï¿½ï¿½ dragons

Bruce Ndlovu .
With its just ended seventh and penultimate season, fantasy television series Game of Thrones solidified its position as the biggest thing on TV, breaking viewing records that it had itself set in previous years.

Sundayaï¿½ï¿½s season finale set a series record for ratings, attracting 12,1 million viewers, as the worldaï¿½ï¿½s most pirated TV production once again shocked and awed viewers during an 81-minute episode.

One of the seasonaï¿½ï¿½s most distinguishing features of that episode and others throughout the season where the showaï¿½ï¿½s dragons, a trio of fire-breathing flying monsters that have become as loved as some of the showaï¿½ï¿½s main characters.

Unknown to Zimbabweans that tuned in to see the dragon triplets wreak havoc in the imaginary world of Westeros, these destructive flying monsters were made possible by one of their own.

Mutare-bred Jonathan Symmonds is the man who, in the past three seasons of the show, has brought the menacing war machines to life on the TV screen.

Symmonds is in the country and will be speaking at a meet-up being hosted by Comexposed on Friday at Moto Republik from 11 am to 12 pm.

Comexposed also announced that they will be having Symmonds at another event in October.

Comexposed Digital Arts Convention is the biggest celebration and showcase of Digital Arts in Zimbabwe. At the event, various digital art works such as animation, comic book art, video, graphic designs, photography and video games from local and international content creators will be showcased.

With his work on Game of Thrones, Symmonds is now one of Zimbabweaï¿½ï¿½s greatest exports in digital screen work despite his humble beginnings.

Born in Durban, South Africa, he moved to Zimbabwe in 1987, living and getting educated in the country, he decided it was time to use some of his skills and passion for animation and drawing.

aï¿½?I moved to England in 2002 and put myself through university. I graduated from the aï¿½?University of Hertfordshire and shortly after that I started working for an Oscar winning visual effects company called Framestore in central London,aï¿½? the animator states in his biography.

aï¿½?When that contract ended I moved into freelancing and worked with a company called Passion Pictures in central London. This was great fun, as I got to work on three commercials as a CG Generalist and then I was selected to work on the feature film The Nutcracker,aï¿½? he said.

After Nutcracker he ended up working on the third series of Primeval and has since worked on some major titles such as James Cameronsaï¿½ï¿½ AVATAR, Where the Wild things Are, Prince of Persia, Your Highness and Nanny Mcphee before ultimately landing Game of Thrones.