Simon Cheung

It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of Simon Cheung in January 2026. He was 57.

Simon passed suddenly doing what he loved most - snowboarding at Heavenly Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe, fully alive in the moment and surrounded by the beauty of the mountains.

Born in England to Peter and Pari Cheung, he was raised and educated in Toronto with his brother and sister, Naysan Cheung and Maria Cheung.

For more than three decades, Simon was a force in the visual effects and technology industries. His deep love for design, mechanics, and engineering shaped a career that made him one of the world’s most respected hard-surface modelers. From building iconic vehicles and machines from reference or pure imagination, his work set a standard of excellence recognized across the industry.

An ILM veteran, Simon helped bring to life the Men in Black supercar, the Star Wars battle and pit droids, and the legendary Mechanical Spider in Wild Wild West. His journey continued through Minority Report and Pirates of the Caribbean. He moved onto Rhythm & Hues, and then to Weta Digital, where he earned a VES Award for his work on the Avatar “Hover Ship” in 2010. After nearly a decade at Weta, he returned to North America, leaving his mark at Apple, Digital Domain, Whiskey Tree, and NVIDIA.

Simon’s greatest legacy wasn’t just what he built; it was the people he touched. His bright smile, infectious laugh, and boundless warmth turned colleagues into lifelong friends. If you were lucky enough to know him, you remember his generosity of spirit, his unmistakable charisma, and, of course, “The De Niro.”

They say people come into your life for a “reason, a season, or a lifetime”. Simon was a lifetime.

In our world, we joke about six degrees of Kevin Bacon but truly, it was only one degree of Simon Cheung. Whether through work, travel, a shared meal, or a long, heartfelt phone call, knowing Simon made us better.

He will be deeply and forever missed.