He built miniatures of LA buildings for fun. Now, Guillermo del Toro is among his fans

Many transplants come to Los Angeles to chase a dream. Kieran Wright kind of just stumbled onto his.

The New Zealander moved to the city about 8 years ago, with the humble goal of soaking in as much of L.A. as he could.

"I wanted to connect with the city as a local would, and I had so much catching up to do," Wright said. "I started building this picture of L.A. that was different to the one that I had imagined, it turned out to be in the best way possible."

Those quests took him on drives far and close to places famous and offbeat. Wright was fascinated with the diner, one staple in the American movies and TV shows he watched before moving to Los Angeles. It was at an icon of the genre, Rae's Restaurant in Santa Monica, where his love for the city, architecture, and Americana all came together to nudge him to try out a hobby — to build miniature replicas of L.A. buildings that are as beautiful as they are painstakingly faithful.

"I was eating breakfast ... and I realized that this is it, this incredible Googie style restaurant. It's so beautiful from the outside and the inside," said Wright. "It just felt right for my first miniature."

The pandemic pivot

That was February 2020. Weeks later, the city entered pandemic lockdown and Wright, who was working at an airline, lost his job. He figured, there was no better time to build that tiny version of Rae's that'd been kicking around in the back of his mind.

"I need to find a job and it's the middle of the pandemic and nobody's hiring," he said. "Maybe I could create art. Maybe I could be an artist. That's what happened."

In June, the tiny replica of Rae's was complete.

He posted photos of it on Instagram . Within months, Wright was getting requests for commissions , while creating works of buildings he himself admires, like the Al & Bea's Mexican Food in Boyle Heights (which my colleague, Caitlin Hernandez, wrote about in this lovely story .)

Soon, he sold his first piece, a Tiki Ti bar miniature, for $600.

The imposter syndrome

Slowly but surely, Wright was starting to make a living as an artist — even though it took him a while to call himself that.

"It took me a while, too, to price the miniatures in the sense of them being works of art that are valuable because it takes a lot of time, a lot of skill and a lot of talent to make," said Wright.

The moment came with his small scale Troubadour, which he priced at $3,000.

"I thought, nobody's going to buy this, this is too crazy, too expensive," he remembered. It sold in 30 minutes.

That particular work was commissioned separately by two other buyers: Slash of Guns N' Roses, and Ringo Starr.

Earning famous fans and a living

One of his career highlights, Wright said, came via a purchase notice he got on Twitter. The buyer was filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who would end up collecting several more pieces, including a mini replica of The Formosa Cafe, and The Jim Henson Company.

After Wright delivered the model to del Toro's house, he asked the director to send him a photo of its final setting when he finds a place for it.

"Sure enough, a couple of days later, he sent me a photo of the miniature surrounded by everything in his house," Wright said. "He's got all sorts of interesting oddities and collectibles... and the art fits in there perfectly."

Wright's newest creation is Langer's Deli. Instead of months, it takes about three weeks for him now to complete a piece, which Wright says is about the size of two shoe boxes stacked on top of one another.

And like his other works, Wright doesn't get to hang on to it for long.

"Langer's is being shipped out to Florida next week. It's [to] somebody who used to live here. They loved Langer's and wanted a little slice of L.A. in Florida," said Wright.