I've been building software for longer than some frameworks have existed.
More than 30 years of shipping code. A stint at Weta Digital on The Lord of the Rings. Twenty years running an Auckland web agency. These days I help businesses use AI, automation and well-built software to work better.
Based in Reading, England. Originally from New Zealand. I work remotely with clients anywhere; right now that is businesses in the UK and New Zealand. I work across disciplines, but each project starts with a specific problem and a clear scope.
Why the history matters.
Breadth is only useful when it lands on a specific problem.
Running an agency for twenty years taught me what clients actually need from a developer: clear scope, honest estimates and work that keeps running after handover. Weta taught me pipelines at scale. HERB taught me what an audience of millions does to a system. Film taught me to explain things so that people follow.
That range is why I can see a whole business problem rather than one layer of it, and why I can build the answer myself rather than hand it off.
Away from client work I'm working through a master's degree in artificial intelligence with Udacity, and I'm starting to contribute to two open research projects: the Vesuvius Challenge, reading the carbonised Herculaneum scrolls with computer vision and geometry, and the Roman Space Telescope microlensing data challenge, finding faint planet signals in survey light curves.
I finished its Agentic AI Nanodegree in September 2026. It covered agentic workflows, tool use and multi-agent systems. Verify the certificate.
Film.
The other half of the work.
I run Developing Films, a production company with a short film, a limited series and a feature screenplay in development. I'm available for selected editing, screenwriting and directing work. The film side is also where the technical work started: RS Talent, Peppers, The Reel Scene and The Actors Gym are all software built for people who make and cast screen work.
Experience.
The short version. The long version is its own page.
- 2025 to present
- Independent developer and consultant, lucasyoung.com
AI systems, automation, websites and apps for businesses in the UK and New Zealand, delivered remotely from Reading.
- 2019 to present
- Head of customer success, VeVe
Digital collectibles platform.
- 2018 to present
- CTO, The Reel Scene London and The Actors Gym
Member and booking platforms, talent-management tooling, video and online infrastructure for two acting schools and their agency.
- 2022 to present
- Founder, Developing Films
Production company. A short film, a limited series and a feature screenplay in development.
- Early 2000s
- Data wrangler and rotoscope artist, Weta Digital
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and I, Robot.
- 2006 to 2017
- Co-founder and CTO, HERB (The Stoner's Cookbook)
Media company with a 20 million-follower Facebook audience and a published cookbook.
- 1997 to 2016
- Co-founder and lead developer, Digitalus
Auckland web agency. Twenty years, clients including Fonterra and Hasbro.
Beyond work.
The things I'm learning.
Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs through the Egypt Exploration Society, which led to Hierolyte. Astrophotography with a small smart telescope. A life-size K9 robot, printed in parts.
Born in London, raised in New Zealand. Studied astrophysics, computer science, philosophy and film at the University of Auckland. French and German heritage.
Want to work together?
I take on work I can do well. Tell me what you need and we'll find out whether we're a fit.
Based in Reading, England.
Working with people in the UK and New Zealand.
Calls from 11am to 11pm UK time, Monday to Friday.