Joel Harlow Joel Harlow is an Emmy Award - winning special effects and prosthetic makeup artist and sculptor . Harlow and his team at Harlow FX designed and constructed two prosthetic figures of Porthos for use in the episode : one to be suspended in the super - hydration chamber and one to be resting within the quarantine box . Harlow was the prosthetic makeup supervisor on ' s , for which he designed Vulcan , Romulan , and Klingon prosthetics and was also responsible for Leonard Nimoy ' s make - up . Harlow has received an Academy Award for his work on " Star Trek " , which he shares with Makeup Department Head Mindy Hall and Prosthetic Makeup Designer Barney Burman . The three also received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Make - Up for " Star Trek " and a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award nomination . Most recently , Harlow has been working as the Makeup Department Head and Prosthetic Designer on the sequel , helmed by Justin Lin . He was nominated , with Richard Alonzo , for an Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling on this film in . He also appears with his wife Cindy Harlow as a Vulcan couple at Yorktown . Life and career . Harlow was born in Grand Folks , North Dakota . He attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan , New York , during which time he began working on low - budget productions , including two of the cult " Toxic Avenger " films . Film . In the early 1990s , Harlow began doing makeup effects work higher - profile films , including " The Sandlot " , " Mighty Morphin Power Rangers : The Movie " , and " Lord of Illusions " , the latter of which starred Scott Bakula , Famke Janssen , Joel Swetow , and Vincent Schiavelli . Harlow subsequently worked on such genre films as " Anaconda " , " Virus " , and the infamously panned " Battlefield Earth : A Saga of the Year 3000 " . Veteran " Star Trek " makeup effects artist Jake Garber – with whom Harlow previously worked on 1992 ' s " The Bodyguard " and the 1995 films " Mighty Morphin Power Rangers : The Movie " and " Automatic " – supervised the prosthetics on " Battlefield Earth " . A member of Local 706 , Harlow worked under the supervision of on ' s adaptation of " How the Grinch Stole Christmas " ( featuring Clint Howard ) and ' s remake of " Planet of the Apes " ( starring Erick Avari , Cary - Hiroyuki Tagawa and David Warner ) . These films marked the first two times Harlow worked with " Star Trek " s Prosthetic Makeup Designer , Barney Burman . Harlow then worked under makeup artist Ve Neill on ' s " A . I . Artificial Intellignece " . He also provided uncredited makeup effects for films like " Magnolia " , " Bicentennial Man " , and " X - Men " ( the latter starring Patrick Stewart and Famke Janssen and directed by Bryan Singer ) . Harlow ' s first project as makeup department head was the 2002 film " Adaptation " , which featured Jim Beaver and Gregory Itzin in the cast . He then became a key makeup artist on all three of Disney ' s " Pirates of the Caribbean " films with Ve Neill ( and all starring Lee Arenberg ) and was the prosthetic makeup designer for the last two films of the trilogy . He was recognized by the Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild for his work on the first film , " The Curse of the Black Pearl " , while his makeup effects for " Dead Man ' s Chest " received a Saturn Award nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction , Fantasy & Horror Films . He was also the makeup department head on the 2011 science fiction thriller " Battle Los Angeles " and on the 2011 comic adaptation " Green Lantern " . Harlow ' s other film makeup credits include the two sequels to " The Matrix " ( both featuring Anthony Zerbe ) , " Auto Focus " , " The Chronicles of Riddick " ( starring Karl Urban ) , " Constantine " , " Domino " ( which featured cinematography by Dan Mindel ) , Steven Spielberg ' s " War of the Worlds " , " National Treasure : Book of Secrets " ( featuring Bruce Greenwood ) , and " Angels & Demons " . He also did prosthetics work on " Charlie Wilson ' s War " ( starring Rachel Nichols ) and prosthetic sculpting for " The Soloist " ( featuring Stephen Root ) . Harlow has been working as the makeup artist for acclaimed actor , transforming Depp into the character of The Madhatter in Tim Burton ' s version of " Alice in Wonderland " . Harlow was also Depp ' s makeup artist on the drama " The Rum Diary " ( which co - stars Karen Austin , Aaron Lustig , and Bill Smitrovich ) , the 2011 thriller " The Tourist " , the fantasy sequel " Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides " ( 2011 ) , the horror comedy " Dark Shadows " ( 2012 ) , the comic adaptation " The Lone Ranger " ( 2013 ) for which he received his second Academy Award nomination in the category Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling in 2014 , shared with Gloria Pasqua Casny , the science fiction drama " Transcendence " ( 2014 ) , and the horror comedy " Tusk " ( 2014 ) . More recent work includes makeup design for Johnny Depp on the fantasy film " Into the Woods " ( 2014 , with Chris Pine ) , the action comedy " Mortdecai " ( 2015 ) , and the fantasy sequel " Alice in Wonderland : Through the Looking Glass " ( 2016 ) , makeup design on the drama " Black Mass " ( 2015 , with Adam Scott ) , and as makeup department head on the sport drama " Sweetwater " ( 2015 ) . Television . Harlow won two Emmy Awards for his work on two different television mini - series based on novels , 1994 ' s " The Stand " and 1997 ' s " The Shining " . He shared the first award with was DS9 makeup artist Camille Calvet , while the second Emmy was shared with " Star Trek " alumni Joe Colwell , Barry Koper , Ve Neill , and Jill Rockow . Harlow later worked with Ve Neill on numerous film productions . In 2000 , Harlow began working on the hit television series " Buffy the Vampire Slayer " . He created Harlow FX to handle effects work on " Buffy " in 2001 , although the company has since been assigned to other projects such as Spielberg ' s remake of " War of the Worlds " and the HBO series " Carnivàle " . In 2002 , Harlow received an Emmy nomination for his work on the " Buffy " episode " Hell ' s Bells . " Three years later , he received another Emmy nomination for an episode of " Carnivàle " . Harlow has also worked on such television programs as the hit FOX series " House " ( starring Jennifer Morrison ) and the acclaimed AMC series " Mad Men " .