Douglas Buffone

Meet Douglas Buffone
Creative Executive, Advisor & Storyteller 🎬

Douglas Buffone has built his life around a desire to seek, immerse, build, and know. UK-born and American, he has traveled to 88 countries, built a career across technology, gaming, and entertainment, and followed a lifelong fascination with culture that eventually brought him to Tokyo.

His career has taken him from Apple during the launch of the App Store to CAA, Legendary, and most recently Skydance, where he spent eight years helping scale the company across business development, franchise strategy, fundraising, and new divisions.

As a Franchise Creative Director and Producer, he worked across major franchises including Terminator, Foundation, Mission: Impossible, and Top Gun. Today, he is based in Tokyo, advising and mentoring creatives and companies while continuing to study Japanese and explore what comes next.

What are you currently building?

Two advisory and mentorship practices at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and creativity. Douglas works with science fiction and fantasy authors, startups, and creative teams on everything from business and creative strategy to world-building and storytelling.

He also coaches high school and university students in game design, helping them use creativity and systems thinking to design not only games, but more flexible possibilities for their own futures.

What excites you about Japan?

Japan has fascinated Douglas for most of his life. He first visited at 17 and returned 14 times before finally moving to Tokyo in January 2025.

From Japanese history and politics to Kurosawa's influence on Star Wars and Japan's impact on gaming and global culture, the country has intersected with many of his interests throughout his life. Moving here has given him the opportunity to go beyond observing that culture from the outside, particularly through learning the language and immersing himself more deeply in everyday life.

A risk that changed your trajectory?

Choosing to step away from established paths, even when the next chapter wasn't certain. Leaving Apple to backpack and eventually move to Los Angeles was one of those moments, and moving to Japan became another.

Those decisions came with anxiety, but his desire to pursue what genuinely excited him consistently outweighed the comfort of staying where he was. Over time, he's learned to trust that instinct and give himself permission to design a life around it.

A habit that has had the biggest impact?

Creating space to go deeper. Meditation helps Douglas cut through noise and anxiety, while reading and travel allow him to continuously explore new perspectives.

For years, he's set ambitious reading goals across history, biography, fiction, manga, and other subjects. He approaches travel similarly, often reading a country's history or literature and watching its films before visiting. Having traveled to 88 countries, he values immersion over simply seeing a new place.

Advice for your 20s?

Have the courage to step off the path and question what you've inherited from family, culture, and the expectations around you.

Douglas believes you can put down the assumptions you've carried with you, decide which ones are truly your own, and build from there. Embracing your outsider status can give you the freedom to listen more closely to your own intuition and ultimately design a life that feels like yours.

Favorite restaurant in Tokyo?

A restaurant in Nishi-Shinjuku specializing in cuisine from Western China and the Silk Road region, where handmade dumplings and noodles meet Middle Eastern and Central Asian flavors.