Winston is the son of special-effects wizard Stan Winston and grew up in a world of character makeups and creature effects. While in high school, he began working at Stan Winston Studios (SWS), making molds, running foam, seaming, patching and learning the FX ropes. This led to puppeteering work on projects that would become iconic cinema classics: James Cameron's Aliens and Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park. After graduating from Yale University, Winston returned to his father's workshop to learn CGI in the fledgling SWS digital department. While the elder Winston's early ambitions as an actor led him to character-effects makeup work, his son took the opposite path and after working in effects to begin his career, turned to developing characters as an actor and later as a screenwriter.
Rialto Pictures