My name is Nuri Durr. I am an artist and freelance illustrator living in Atlanta Georgia. For more than ten years i’ve worked under the pseudonym ActionHankBeard, a name I chose at random when trying to decide on an Instagram username while watching Dexter’s Laboratory.

Though originally from Chicago, my family moved to Atlanta when I was still young and this is where i’ve lived ever since. I attended Georgia State University in 2014 and for a brief period I worked as a caricature artist at Six Flags Over Georgia. Later that same year I made the decision to walk away from everything to pursue a career in art on my own terms. In the beginning it was rough. Lots of ups and downs and lessons learned, but with time I stepped up my skills and I learned how to leverage my growing social media presence to open myself up to various opportunities. I owe a lot to my wife, Mia who supported me and held me down in those early days.

I’m a child of the late 80’s and early 90’s so it’s not surprise that much of my art is fueled by nostalgia from that era. Saturday morning cartoons, comics and of course NES games. Personally, I think you do your best work when you just do what makes you happy. So that’s what I’ve tried to build my career around. My primary discipline is in traditional art. I love working traditionally more than anything else. There’s a certain type of positive feedback loop I get from creating a tangible piece of art from creative problem solving. During my “free” time I stream and record my process regularly through Twitch and I sell most of my original pieces through my shop. As of 2021 i’ve been mostly working fulltime as a character designer at Warner Bros Discovery.

Works

Warner Bros Discovery

Ubisoft Blue Mammoth Games

Funimation

Bento Box Entertainment

Capybara Games

Iam8bit

Nano Park Studios

Lost in Cult

Chucklefish

Something We Made Games

Marvel

Combo Breaker

Sony

Copic Marker

Arteza

Gallery Nucleus

Nucleus Portland

Gallery1988

Blick Art Materials