His film El Angel, shot in the form of an old silent film, chronicles the birth, climax and death of Los Angeles, commenting on how greed corrupts art and commerce;[2] the film was exhibited at the Fifth LA Freewaves Festival in 1997 (which was held at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art).[2] After graduating from San Francisco State University in 2000, and subsequently spending some time in Europe, Waugh returned to the US.[3] Waugh took part in the University of Brighton's Master of Fine Arts exhibition in 2015.[4]