Glambot director Cole Walliser makes red carpet return at Actor Awards after 'condescending' e-mail controversy

Glambot director Cole Walliser has made his red carpet return after he became embroiled in controversy over 'condescending' emails sent before his rise to fame. 

Filmmaker, director and content creator Walliser, 44, shot to fame in 2016 when he began capturing high-speed videos of celebrities posing on red carpets, which are then slowed down.

However Walliser landed in hot water after emails he sent years ago resurfaced, sparking backlash over their 'unprofessional' tone. 

While Walliser is ordinarily a staple at awards shows, he appeared to sit out the 2026 Grammys after the drama erupted.

But now, several weeks later, Walliser has made his grand return to the spotlight.  

Walliser was at the Actor Awards on Sunday night, capturing all the glamorous celebrities on the red carpet in his signature slow-motion style. 

'COMING IN HOT TO THE ACTOR AWARDS,' Walliser announced on social media, along with video of him jumping for joy on the red carpet. 

The comments section were filled with joyous fans thrilled to see him back recording celebrities, with one writing: 'YAYYY YOU’RE BACK.'

'Missed you !! Glad to see you back,' another wrote. 

Meanwhile, influencer Hayley Baylee also reunited with Walliser on the red carpet. 

'We meet again... GlamBot,' she wrote in video of her locking eyes with Walliser, who was nodding knowingly towards her from across the red carpet. 

''YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT ISSSSS,' Walliser commented in the video.

While a majority of the response appears to be positive, a few netizens have not yet forgiven him. 

'Time for you to humble yourself,' one person told Walliser. 

' time for you to learn customer service and stop thinking yourself as a celebrity?' another wrote.

'time for you to quit social media!!!!!' another posted.

The Actor Awards appear to be the first time Walliser himself has returned to the red carpet since the scandal erupted, as he appeared to skip out on the Grammys last month.  

E! News shared a slew of behind-the-scenes clips on X of celebrities using the Glambot during the red carpet, and many users pointed out that Walliser was not there.

Walliser faced immense scrutiny for his supposed lack of professionalism after a Reddit user uploaded what appeared to be a 2019 email exchange between Walliser and a potential client.

In a series of messages, Yinka Animashaun reached out to book Walliser's services for a wedding but was met with resistance from the filmmaker who stressed that hiring him and the Glambot would be expensive.

'Just so you are aware the Glambot is a camera system and personnel used by a network television station for one of the biggest red carpets of the year,' an email allegedly from Walliser read.

'It is not cheap, if you feel like something like this might be within your budget range, then I am happy to discuss further.'

Animashaun confirmed that the Glambot would be in her budget range, to which Walliser allegedly responded that he didn't believe her response that he was in her budget because he had not yet quoted her a fee and hiring him and his camera crew would cost between $10,000 and $1 million.

In her reply, Animashaun said that she had assumed the fee would be pricy. She then asked Walliser what the next steps would be to book his services.

'So where would I begin?' she said. 'Through you or is there a website?'

Walliser allegedly wrote: 'OK it's $300,000 and I'll take a 10 percent deposit to secure the gear and once I have the deposit I can do a contract.'

Noting his email, Animashaun confirmed that she will reach out by Monday.

Walliser allegedly then replied with: 'If you wanted to know how much it costs you just needed to ask, you don't need to pretend you are going to book it.'

The alleged email exchange was met with outrage from fellow Reddit users who branded Walliser as 'unprofessional' and 'condescending.'

In a video posted to his Instagram days later, Walliser broke his silence on the scandal and acknowledged the tone in his emails was 'dismissive and curt.'

Walliser also addressed allegations of being 'labeled racist,' admitting he would 'never intend' to cause the same pain he endured growing up as someone who struggled with 'issues of identity, race, and belonging.' 

'I want to talk about some emails that I sent years ago that resurfaced recently,' Walliser told his followers.

'The tone in these emails was dismissive and curt and that is not OK. In 2019, I didn’t have a team around me, it was just myself. I edited every single video. I answered every single email, and I was overwhelmed. But that is not an excuse. Everything lands on me.

'I think the hardest part about all of this is being labeled racist. I’m half Chinese and growing up, issues of identity, race and belonging deeply affected me and I would never intend to inflict that onto anybody else.

'But I do understand that reading these emails, people could be upset, and assume bias, especially given the frequency at which people of color experience being dismissed, and so I take responsibility for my words, irregardless of what my intent was.'

He also apologized to those who felt slighted by him during their interactions on the red carpet.

'I also want to acknowledge people’s concerns that they were mistreated or felt dismissed or treated less than on the red carpet,' he added.

'Live events move really fast and I would never want someone to come see me and leave feeling that way. But I do understand that it could happen and it did happen and for that I am sorry.

'I’d like to think that I have grown a lot in the past seven years and I always want to treat everybody with respect that they deserve, but clearly more could be done and I can do better.

'And so that’s a thing that I want to focus on improving and just working towards being better.

'These are just some thoughts that have been weighing on me that I wanted to share. Thanks for watching.'