Thomas Elder-Groebe (born 5 December 1975; age 49) is a visual effects coordinator for major motion picture studios, as well as a film producer. He was Visual Effects Coordinator for Paramount Pictures on 2009's Star Trek, under Paramount's Visual Effects Producer, Shari Hanson. He began his work on Star Trek in June 2007.
Elder-Groebe attended Gonzaga University from 1994 through 1998. A year later, he became Department Coordinator at Industrial Light & Magic for two years. He was then hired by ESC Entertainment as their Visual Effects Coordinators on The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (2003, both starring Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss, featuring Star Trek: Insurrection actor Anthony Zerbe).
Next, Elder-Groebe signed up with Tippett Studios to coordinator their effects for The Stepford Wives (2004, featuring Matt Malloy). After his work on this film was complete, he and Eric Withee were both the Visual Effects Coordinators for Zoic Studios on Serenity, based on Firefly. A few years later, Elder-Groebe and Withee worked together on Star Trek, with Withee coordinating effects for Svengali FX.
After Serenity, Elder-Groebe worked as Visual Effects Coordinator for Sony Pictures Entertainment on the films Zathura: A Space Adventure and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He then worked at Paramount for the first time, coordinating the effects for Transformers (2007, written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and featured W. Morgan Sheppard, Andy Milder, Glenn Morshower, Michael Shamus Wiles, Jamison Yang, and the voice of Robert Foxworth). Prior to Star Trek, Elder-Groebe was 20th Century Fox's Visual Effects Coordinator on Live Free or Die Hard (which featured Star Trek: Voyager regular Tim Russ).
In addition to his work in the visual effects industry, Elder-Groebe has also produced several short films. He was a co-producer on the 2004 documentary short Never Been Done, which chronicles the life and career of professional skater Jon Comer. He was later a consulting producer on the 2006 dramatic short Lights Out, which features music by Star Trek's additional orchestrator, Chad Seiter. Elder-Groebe later produced 2006's You Owe Us., a comic look at the film noir genre which featured David Figlioli.