Howard Gersh has worked for ILM for almost four years and has recently completed work on the Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition. Much like assembling a massive jigsaw puzzle, Gersh was responsible for putting many of the separate pieces of a shot together, such as applying light to the dewbacks and incorporating physical elements such as the footprints, shadows, reflections, dust and sand spray elements.

He was also involved in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In Empire, Gersh placed the new footage of the Millennium Falcon's approach through the Cloud City skyline into the pre-existing Bespin scenes and adjusted the lighting and shadows to accurately represent dusk.

Gersh has previously worked on Forrest Gump, Radioland Murders, The Indian in the Cupboard, and Flubber. He is also serving as Technical Director on Episode I.

Gersh was born in Detroit, Michigan and spent his childhood in surrounding suburbs. He later moved to the Los Angeles area with his family and attended the University of California at Irvine, where he was educated in computer science.

He also studied art and design, and film and video production on the side. After graduating from UC Irvine, and after an internship with Dream Quest Images, he began working at Rhythm and Hues Studios, where he was hired to perform nightly tape backups of the computer databases for the Disneyland Paris attraction: Le Visionarium. In his spare time, Gersh learned the software and computer graphics production techniques relating to the positions of Digital Modeler and Technical Director.