01 / HELLO
Here’s how the dots connect.
1990 → ∞
02 / WHERE IT BEGINS
Born in Konya, to Circassian parents. My grandfather, Fevzi Kilic, made paintings from stone. I spent much of my childhood in his studio.
03 / A CHANGE OF SCENE
I was studying to be a geological engineer, but I found my way into film, photography and writing.
04 / LEARNING BY MAKING
05 / OFF THE CLOCK
06 / CONNECTING THE DOTS
Connecting people, processes and technologies to transform complex challenges into creative solutions.
STRATEGY / PRODUCT / EXPERIENTIAL
I work across product, digital and experiential. I turn creative ambition into a clear plan, bring the right people together, and see the work through.
CURRENTLY AT TERRITORY STUDIO
I'm Surhay. I connect people, ideas and technology to make things happen.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
I was born in Konya, Turkey, to Circassian parents, and raised in Toronto, Canada. Growing up between places and cultures became part of how I see the world.
I studied Media Arts at Sheridan College and continued learning through NYU's MicroMasters programme in Integrated Digital Media. My work has spanned film, advertising, products and experiences, with the same curiosity about what an idea could become.
Today, I'm based in London and currently at Territory Studio . I work across strategy, business development, product, experiential and production, connecting creative ambition with the people and processes that make it happen.
A FEW MORE DOTS
WHAT I DO
Product, digital and experiential.
Different formats. A connected approach.
OFF THE CLOCK / FOLLOWING MY CURIOSITY
Things I build, photograph,
experiment with and write about.
AI Now brings together my interest in AI, practical tools and digital services. This is the website around that work.
A side project that keeps evolving as I explore what the technology can help people do.
Estimated running costs, including Webflow hosting. Shared subscriptions are counted here once. Domain: £20/year.
Visit AI Now
This website is one of my own projects: a space to bring together the different things I do.
The typography, rabbit, particles, motion and Playground are all part of that evolving experiment.
Domain: £20/year. Built with existing AI tools; shared design subscriptions are counted under AI Now. No separate hosting bill has been confirmed.
Back to the surfaceExecutive Producer
I was Executive Producer for Territory Studio’s pre-reveal visual experience for the Volvo ES90.
An abstract visual introduction to the Volvo ES90, created for its live reveal at Artipelag in Stockholm.
Territory Studio partnered with AKQA on a pre-reveal sequence built around the idea of balance. Metal, glass, fabric and technology became moving compositions, introducing the car through its materials before the vehicle appeared.
The team developed the projection through material and motion studies, Unreal Engine previsualisation and testing on the physical screens. The resulting three-minute sequence combined CG imagery with a custom dual-screen setup in the event space.
Bringing CG storytelling into a live presentation, with the pre-reveal sequence built around the event’s custom projection setup.
Product Lead
I was Product Lead on OKX House, the immersive retail experience created for OKX.
A virtual house connecting community, physical merchandise and digital ownership.
OKX House was introduced as a wallet-accessed retail experience where visitors could explore exclusive merchandise and NFT-backed ownership. The project brought the brand’s community into an interactive environment on desktop and mobile.
Territory Studio designed and built the CG house, rooms, props and merchandise models. These spaces supported a wider shopping experience connecting online identity with physical goods.
Connecting an explorable brand environment with a shopping experience, physical merchandise and digital ownership.
Executive Producer & Product Lead
I was Executive Producer and Product Lead for AUDI E concept.
A connected digital cabin for AUDI’s new electric concept, revealed in Shanghai.
The AUDI E concept introduced a China-focused electric brand developed with SAIC. Its interior places a curved panoramic display alongside personalised applications, contextual controls and an AI assistant.
The concept explores the relationship between the vehicle, its passengers and the digital experience. It combines physical materials with an interface designed to feel integrated into the cabin.
A shared remit across product and production, within an Audi relationship that developed from Activesphere into further work.
Delivery Manager
I managed delivery for Territory Studio’s contribution to the Audi Activesphere concept.
An augmented cabin experience exploring how people could interact with a future vehicle.
Audi Activesphere explored an open, screenless interior with augmented reality as the interface between passengers and the vehicle. Territory worked with Audi on spatial UI and a working prototype of the augmented experience.
Real-time visuals and Magic Leap 2 enabled a mixed-reality demonstration of controls inside and outside the cabin. The interface responded to different driving contexts, from conventional road use to off-road exploration and automated travel.
The work became the foundation for a longer Audi relationship that I helped develop into the E concept commission.
Strategy
I worked on strategy across multiple smart launches, in collaboration with Massive Labs.
Customer understanding and event strategy across a series of smart launches.
smart’s launch programme spanned different products, audiences and settings. The work included the brand’s presence at Auto Shanghai and IAA Mobility in 2025, followed by the Paris Motor Show in 2026.
My part was strategic: helping define the people the brand needed to connect with, and developing an approach to the events. The work was carried out in collaboration with Massive Labs.
My contribution brought customer-persona thinking and event strategy into the launch work, with Paris 2026 forming part of that wider collaboration.
The global debut of the smart #3 Keith Haring Art Car, alongside China launches for the #5 BRABUS and #5 Premium+ AWD.
View project announcementsmart presented its electric portfolio, the #3 Keith Haring Celebrating the Streets art car and news of the forthcoming #2.
View project announcementThe world premiere of the all-electric smart #2. My contribution included the event strategy, in collaboration with Massive Labs.
View project announcement
Senior Producer
I was Senior Producer on Territory Studio’s work for the Emirates Pavilion at Dubai World Expo 2020.
An immersive visitor journey exploring the future of aviation.
Territory Studio created digital content and software for Emirates’ flagship pavilion, working with Creative Technology London. Ten multisensory installations explored aircraft design, materials, propulsion and the passenger experience.
The work combined interactive interfaces, animation, sound, robotics, projection and VR. Visitors could design an aircraft and explore a future cabin, before a six-minute, 360-degree finale carried them through a day in Dubai in 2071.
A production remit spanning film, interactive content and physical presentation, within one visitor journey.
Product Lead
I was Product Lead on the Maybelline City of Rhythms project, including its House of Beats interactive experience.
A music-led brand experience connecting Maybelline, ITZY and an interactive virtual world.
House of Beats formed part of The City of Rhythms, Maybelline New York’s virtual experience for the 11:11 shopping event. Working with Gotham and K-pop group ITZY, Territory provided UX, UI and creative assets for the experience.
The studio’s work also included game prototyping, design, storyboarding and motion/VFX assets for the accompanying commercial. The final experience on Tmall combined rhythm-game mechanics with product discovery.
Connecting a music-led interactive product with a campaign built from the same creative assets and visual world.
Creative & Producer
I worked across creative and production on Territory’s contribution to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.
A filmed journey that crossed into the stadium and became part of the live ceremony.
Working with Bild Studios for Done + Dusted, Territory created sequences linking athletes’ homes around the Commonwealth to the opening ceremony in Birmingham. The houses broke free from their foundations, travelled across land and sea, and arrived at Alexander Stadium as part of the stage.
The homes returned later as augmented-reality elements alongside fireworks. The graphics were composited live for the BBC broadcast, connecting the filmed story with the stadium performance directed by Iqbal Khan.
Continuity between screen storytelling, the live ceremony and the broadcast’s augmented-reality moments.
Senior Producer
I was Senior Producer on Territory Studio’s contribution to No Passengers: Episode 3.
A virtual-production journey through the imagination of Dr Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stepanian.
Created for the Soho House and Porsche film series, this episode followed experience designer and filmmaker Dr Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stepanian. Territory developed a journey through distinct 3D environments reflecting her ideas and body of work.
The scenes were built for real-time playback on the MARS Volume, allowing the artist and Porsche Taycan to be filmed inside the virtual worlds. The resulting imagery connected fantastical landscapes with the lighting and reflections captured in camera.
A production contribution to worlds that needed to work both as designed environments and as part of an in-camera film shoot.
Creative & Producer
I worked across creative and production on a real-time brand world for RSTLSS.
A fashion and gaming identity translated into a real-time environment.
The RSTLSS environment explored how the brand could inhabit a virtual world. Developed in Unreal Engine, the work was designed for a panoramic presentation and a wider interactive website initiative.
The real-time environment was completed as a standalone development deliverable, exploring panoramic imagery and how the fashion brand could extend into a virtual setting.
Giving the fashion and gaming brand a spatial expression through a real-time world, with creative development and production brought together.
Client Leadership & Production
I managed the client relationship and film production for The Glenlivet, growing the account substantially over time.
A growing client relationship expressed through CG product storytelling and campaign films.
Cask Masters is one example of that relationship. For the travel-retail collection, Territory created photoreal CG key visuals and a product film, with cutdowns and variants for different display formats.
Working from a storyboard supplied by Impero, the team developed the Cask Master’s hall and its live-action/CG compositions. The work extended across social formats, airport billboards and point-of-sale displays.
The contribution extended beyond film production into the client relationship and the substantial growth of the account.
Creative & Producer
I worked across creative and production on Hotel Chocolat’s Chocolat Imaginarium campaign.
A fantastical chocolate world for Hotel Chocolat’s Christmas campaign.
ITG approached Territory to create the CG visuals and videos for the Chocolat Imaginarium. The campaign reimagined festive products within an elaborate house in a chocolate world, combining seasonal fantasy with the brand’s emphasis on craft.
The team used Unreal Engine, Nanite and scanned assets to build detailed environments with real-time flexibility. Lighting, materials and atmosphere connected the campaign’s imagery with the warmth and character of the products.
Carrying the festive brand world through into a coherent set of films and campaign visuals.
Senior Producer
I was Senior Producer on Territory Studio's Digital Forensics programme-identity package.
A programme identity and graphics package for a four-part television series about digital forensics.
Territory Studio developed a system for maps, call logs, messages and titles. A crime-board idea connected pieces of evidence with red threads, giving the investigations a consistent visual language.
Typography and grids brought structure to complex information. Concept and motion studies explored LiDAR, point clouds, glitch and data disturbance to reveal what sits beneath the surface.
Helping the visual identity and motion package come together as one programme-wide system.
Executive Producer
I was Executive Producer on Territory Studio's title-design project for Hijack.
An abstract flight path and sliding cartography introduce the real-time thriller Hijack.
Territory Studio translated the thriller's shifting events into a moving map. Stylised radar and 3D cartography follow the flight, with tiles sliding apart to reveal the typography.
The final direction grew from an earlier exploration of the aircraft cabin, moving towards an abstract puzzle that keeps the journey in jeopardy.
Executive production of a title sequence built around the story’s shifting flight path.
Senior Producer
I was Senior Producer on Territory Studio's title-design project for Suspicion.
A title sequence built around secrecy, distorted viewpoints and the feeling of being watched.
Territory Studio developed a maze of mirrors for the eight-part drama. Reflections and refractions lead through glimpses of its environments, keeping the imagery suggestive and unsettled.
The sequence places viewers in the position of a concealed observer. Its changing scenes introduce the show's atmosphere of paranoia without spelling out the story.
Senior production on the series’ suspense-led opening sequence.
Creative & Producer
I contributed across creative and production for KAFT 21 Tees.
Eight CGI worlds for KAFT’s 2021 T-shirt collection, bringing the brand’s illustrations into character-led films.
Working with Orion Studio, the project translated KAFT’s designs into a series of distinct environments. Digital characters wore the collection across imagined landscapes, from open fields to architectural spaces.
Creative direction was led by Murat Kilic, with creative art direction by Berk Polat. The Horizon film was directed and designed by Orion Studio, with sound design by Tuğrul Gültepe.
Connecting the campaign’s creative ideas with their production as character-led CGI.
Creative & Producer
I worked across the creative and production of Orion Studio's Lamborghini Huracán STO launch pitch.
A screen-led launch pitch for the Lamborghini Huracán STO, built around the idea of a first drive.
The concept placed two screens either side of the vehicle. A cinematic journey through a CG road environment connected the screen content with the car at the centre of the proposed reveal.
Published with Orion Studio, the work explored how vehicle imagery, changing viewpoints and the surrounding environment could build the story of a first drive. This case presents the pitch concept.
Bringing the creative concept and its production together around a coherent pitch narrative.
Creative & Producer
I worked across the creative and production of Orion Studio's Bioluminescence projection-mapping project.
A projection-mapping project created for Cosmolights Festival 2020, inspired by the light produced by marine organisms.
The visual approach began with naturally occurring light in marine life. Organic forms, luminous particles and flowing structures connected those references with ideas of evolution and technology.
Created with Orion Studio, the project translated these visual studies into an architectural projection format. The building became a surface for changing patterns, depth and motion.
Connecting the creative exploration with production for an architectural projection format.
