When Rachael Authors first picked up a makeup brush, it wasn’t for fashion or fame. Like most young women, Authors struggled with her skin in high school.
“So for me, makeup was a way of being able to feel more confident,” she said.
Practicing how to do makeup on her friends and being able to express her creativity made her consider doing it as a career.
While Authors may have got some of her creative inspiration from her father, Barry Authors, who was part of the Canadian comedy duo Authors & Swinson, she also liked academics. With a push from her parents, she went to the University of Toronto for life sciences.
She continued on to get two more credentials: one in Occupational Health and Safety from what is now known as Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), and a Master’s in Occupational Therapy from the University of Toronto.
Still toying with the idea of doing makeup as a career, she decided to go to George Brown College for beauty and special effects makeup.
“I knew that I always loved makeup and it was something that I always came back to,” she said.
There, she learned not just the artistry of makeup, but the science and theory behind it. This is also where she got into special effects makeup.
That passion led to her first professional opportunity: working at Canada’s Wonderland doing makeup at Halloween Haunt and Winter Fest. She has now worked there for 19 years, saying it’s “really awesome” and rewarding, getting to go back every year.
“It’s very social too, it’s like a family. Every season, the same people typically come back,” she said, “It’s just nice being able to be part of something that is really about the team. So it’s not just the makeup, it’s the costume, it’s the actors, it’s the park itself.”
Authors also works full-time at Durham College and is both a professor and program coordinator for Durham College’s Cosmetic Techniques and Management diploma.
In 2025, she received Durham College’s Faculty Award of Excellence, an honour that recognizes her dedication to both craft and classroom.
Amanda Watson, a professor at DC, nominated Authors three years in a row for the award.
“She always goes above and beyond,” she said.
Authors said it was nice to be recognized and that it was a special moment.
“I think because I love teaching so much, I think that made it even more special,” she said.
Authors loves her students. Paige Jacobson, a graduate of the Cosmetic Techniques and Management program, is now a colleague of Authors at Halloween Haunt.
Jacobson loved having Authors as a professor and thinks very highly of her. She described her as “very funny” and “bubbly.”
“As a teacher, she’s strict, but as a peer, she’s very cool, which I respect,” she said. “I think it helped me grow a lot, not only as an artist, but also as a person.”
She said it feels amazing to still get to learn and work alongside Authors.
“I always watch like everything she does and I pay very close attention because even as someone who’s working alongside her, I still like to learn from her.”
Jacobson also described her as creative, knowledgeable and caring.
Those three words capture what makes Authors stand out: a balance of technical expertise, passion for learning and genuine care for her students. Whether she’s blending foundation in the classroom or fake blood behind the scenes at Wonderland, her goal is to inspire creativity.
For Authors, makeup has always been about more than surface-level beauty. It’s about creativity. Two decades after her first Halloween Haunt, she’s helping a new generation of artists express themselves again this year at Winterfest.