Star Wars PR Man

Chris Coxall R'02 left Worth with little idea of what he wanted to do but armed with a sense of adventure, resilience and a positive outlook on life. Nearly 20 years on, he has just been appointed Head of Public Relations for Lucasfilm.

It has been a remarkable journey for Chris who joined Disney in 2013 and has worked on every Star Wars project since the company purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, beginning with Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). He has led global feature campaigns across Lucasfilm, Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney, and worked on the awards campaigns for Disney+’s The Mandalorian, which has collected 14 Emmys across two seasons.

In his new role, Chris will serve as the primary spokesperson for Lucasfilm and develop its overall communications strategy. He will lead publicity on all Lucasfilm features and episodic projects and oversee fan relations.

After leaving Worth, Chris studied Economics and Politics at Bath University before working in finance in London for three years. However, he did not feel fulfilled professionally and, unsure of his next step, he went travelling for nine months, after which he got a job as an extra on a film set in London just to earn some money. He recalled in an article for The Blue Paper in 2016: “I instantly loved the energy and the organised chaos of a movie set. A few weeks later I had bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles and made up my mind that the movie industry was for me.”

He worked his way up the ladder in Hollywood, starting with a British-owned public relations firm before spending three years with DDA Public Relations where among other roles he worked on the global press tour for The Hunger Games.

Since joining Disney, as well as the Star Wars movies, he has also worked on other huge successes including Maleficent, Saving Mr Banks and Pirates of the Caribbean. A career highlight, prior to his recent appointment, was the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens which grossed over $2 billion dollars worldwide and holds the record for the highest grossing movie of all time in both the US and the UK.

What Chris finds rather amusing is that, "other than being a fan of TV and film, as most people are, my very first experience of looking at the entertainment industry critically came from the newly appointed Abbot, Dom Mark Barrett's AS-level Media Studies class! Sadly I only got a C but it doesn't seem to have done me too much harm!"