Gaute was born in the Artic north of Norway, just beside a shelter for polar bears. However, with the danger of hungry bears, speeding snow scooters and the constant, intense smell of fish – the family moved south after a few years. 

They settled in the middle of Norway, and the childhood was quite uneventful, except from the occasional fires Gaute would start from playing around with fireworks. That said, it was unintentional to create that amount of commotion, but to this day he still loves a good old explosion for the camera – or making a small fire while trekking in the mountains.

During the younger years of his life, he always loved writing and telling stories. The imagination would sometimes even scare and ruin his own ability to sleep. 

On a serious note; coming from a background with studies of both film, theatre and VFX, and with multiple hobbies like music, climbing, writing about aviation on small forums and collecting old chairs, his body of work is just as unpredictable. From comedy in a car, to visual epics in space, or an emotional journey with an animated character. It’s all about finding the heart of each project, and pushing the storytelling to a level where you involve your audience. 

His work includes campaigns for international clients like Mastercard, Lego, Coca Cola, Volkswagen, IKEA, Schweppes, Tuborg, Turkish Airlines, Vodafone, M&M´s and Epson.

Hesthagen has done episodic television, been featured in Shots and other online industry publications, won several awards both in his native Norway and internationally. In addition, his short films have been screened at numerous film festivals around the globe.

And, if you ever need a director for a zero gravity project, you will never find a more experienced guy than him.