South Park creators raise $20M for deepfake startup

The minds behind South Park are no strangers to pushing boundaries, but this time they are doing it with AI rather than crude paper cutouts.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's deepfake studio, Deep Voodoo, just secured a $20 million funding round led by Connect Ventures, the joint venture between Hollywood powerhouse agency CAA and venture firm NEA. This marks the startup's first outside capital, having previously been funded entirely by Parker and Stone’s entertainment vehicle, Park County.

From a scrapped movie to Kendrick Lamar's face-morphing hit

The startup actually came out of a creative roadblock.

Back in early 2020, Parker and Stone were assembling deepfake artists for an upcoming feature film. When the pandemic halted film sets globally, the duo pivoted their talent to focus entirely on building a best-in-class synthetic media platform.

The broader public got its first look at what the tech could do through Kendrick Lamar’s video for "The Heart Part 5." In a seamless take, Lamar’s face shifted through uncanny likenesses of Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle, OJ Simpson, and Kobe Bryant.

Now, with fresh capital, Deep Voodoo is rolling out its face-swapping effects to outside filmmakers, producers, and independent artists looking to bypass conventional VFX.

Why it matters

Traditional Hollywood face replacement has notoriously been both outrageously expensive and frequently disappointing. Disney poured millions into de-aging and recreating digital characters like Grand Moff Tarkin and young Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, only to be widely criticized for an eerie, waxy look.

We think Deep Voodoo is proving that machine-learning-based synthetic media can deliver more emotional resonance at a fraction of the cost. For indie creators and mid-budget productions, this opens up visual storytelling techniques that were previously reserved for nine-figure studio budgets.

Partnering with Connect Ventures is also a brilliant strategic play. Synthetic media has an obvious legal and optical minefield surrounding likeness rights and actor consent. Having CAA in their corner gives Deep Voodoo immediate access to Hollywood talent, major studio deals, and the institutional clout needed to navigate union concerns.

The challenge, of course, is overcoming the stigma of the word "deepfake." Even in Kendrick's video, minor visual artifacts reminded viewers that the tech is still evolving. But if anyone can turn a controversial internet novelty into a legitimate Hollywood craft, it looks like Parker and Stone have the best shot.