About Toby Howell
Toby Howell is an experienced Director of Photography based in Bristol, UK, but used to shooting films and commercials all over the world.
After spending a childhood immersed in drawing and painting, Toby did an Illustration degree specialising in animated films. This lead to a runner position at Aardman Animations, where he worked his way up through the Camera department until he was lighting popular series' like Shaun the Sheep and Creature Comforts.
Moving into commercials he specialised in mixed media work- occupying a unique position shooting large scale animation on location, and live action and high speed jobs often requiring complex motion control moves and organising large Camera teams. These include two commercials for John Lewis- "Things Matter" and "The Bear and Hare" ( winner of 3 British Arrows and 5 Creative Circle awards ), as well as work for Levi's, Google, Apple, VW, Nike and McDonalds. His work on for the BBC Winter Olympics "Trails will Blaze" won a Grand Clio for Cinematography.
He has shot stop frame animation outside on location in Johannesburg, Berlin and London, as well as studio commercials in Helsinki, Kiev, Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Oslo, Germany and New York.
Specialising in highly technical shoots, Toby likes to explore the boundaries between stills, video and extremely high speed work, calmly solving complex exposure challenges whilst seeking the beauty in every frame.
In order to shoot more narrative work Toby also spent a year working with Wes Anderson on Fantastic Mr Fox, as well as working on Netflix's Love Death and Robots and a Peter and Wolf film with Director Elliot Dear.
Toby occasionally directs some commercial work for Dyson as well as shooting lots of product work for them.
He can be reached on +44 7976291810 or at tobybmhowell@gmail.com
Additional press
https://www.dragonframe.com/blog/over-the-garden-wall-10th-anniversary-short-by-aardman/
https://www.dragonframe.com/blog/brother-printers-spots-by-noah-harris/
https://www.dragonframe.com/blog/wilson-things-matter/
https://www.dragonframe.com/blog/harris-peppermint/
Awards
Love Death and Robots - All Through the House
D&AD Silver Pencil
Emmy for Animation
BBC Winter Olympics - Trails Will Blaze
2026 Ciclope Grand Prix for Production
D&AD Yellow Pencil
2026 Grand Clio for Cinematography
BBC Christmas campaign - The Supporting Act
Cannes Lions Gold in Film Craft - Animation and Silver in Film Craft - Direction
D&AD Awards: Wooden Pencil Film Advertising Crafts, Animation for Film Advertising 2018
Creative Circle Awards 2018 Gold for Best Animation
British Arrows 2018 Gold for Entertainment Promotions
HBO Max - Peter and the Wolf
3 Emmy Nominations
John Lewis - The Bear and Hare
British Arrow Award 2014 (Gold) - Best Integrated
British Arrow Award 2014 (Silver) - Best over 90 Second Cinema Commercial
British Arrow Award 2014 (Silver) - Best over 90 Second TV Commercial Using Paid-For Media
Creative Circle Awards 2014 (Gold) Craft, Film, Digital & Radio - Best Animation in Film or Digital
Creative Circle Awards 2014 (Gold) Film - Best Cinema
Creative Circle Awards 2014 (Silver) Best Film Production Design
Creative Circle Awards 2014 (Silver) Film Craft - Best Direction
Creative Circle Awards 2014 (Silver) Best TV Single