Lauren Billings’ biggest critics are kids. They’ll call her out if she refers to a Quetzalcoatlus as a dinosaur—it’s a prehistoric flying reptile, thank you very much. They’ll notice if one of her projects lacks feathers. Or if its hands are misshapen. Luckily, she rarely slips up. She can’t risk losing the respect of her most ardent fans.
You see, Billings works in the niche world of constructing animatronics—specifically dinosaurs, bugs, and prehistoric beings. It’s her job to bring to life to creatures that kids love, or sometimes fear, in a way they’ve never experienced before.
“It’s one thing to see your favorite dinosaur in a movie or in a book or in a cartoon,” she says. “It’s another thing to see it actually as a model, moving and making noises.”
Billings is vice president of operations at Billings Productions, established by her parents, Sandra and Larry, and headquartered in Allen. The company creates animatronics housed all over the world—from the Taronga Zoo in Australia to Denmark’s Six Flags-esque theme park, Djurs Sommerland. The company is the only manufacturer of its kind in America…