Canadian animation production company Huminah Huminah Animation has promoted Steve Cooke from his Head of Production role to VP of Production & Operations. Cooke joined the studio in 2022 and has been significantly involved in expanding the studio’s capability and capacity, applying his 20-years of experience in the industry.
Prior to joining Huminah Huminah, Cooke had been working at IOM as Studio General Manager from 2020 to 2021, with a previous stint from 2004 to 2019 at DHX, where he was Supervisor of CG on Rev and Roll, Inspector Gadget, Doozers, Fireman Sam, SuperWhy, Wishenpoof and Little People. Previous to that he was Art Director on Bo on the Go, Monster Math Squad, Animal Mechanicals and before that a stop-motion animator on Lunar Jim.
Cooke’s animation career began in 1998 at Cage Digital, where he served as a senior animator on Salter Street’s series Lexx. He has also worked as a lead artist at several other Canadian companies over the years.
On the heels of the recent appointment of Skyler Mattson as CEO of Saffronic has further expanded its executive team with the appointment of Kevin J. Johnson as its first Executive Creative Director. In his new role, Johnson will collaborate with Kristy Scanlan, recently appointed SVP of Business Development, to foster relationships with new and existing clients — such as DreamWorks Animation (Gabby’s Dollhouse, Dragons: The Nine Realms, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous), WildBrain and Trioscope.
Based in Los Angeles, Johnson has over 30 years of experience in animation. Most recently, he served as Supervising Director at Universal 1440 Entertainment on the last four seasons of Curious George. Prior, he directed the animated feature Dog Gone Trouble, distributed by Netflix. He was also the Animation Supervisor on Fox’s feature film Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and the director of The Jungle Book. His animation experiences also include Head of Story on Astroboy and a creative consultancy on The Zula Patrol for PBS.
Saffronic‘s management team, now led by Mattson, also includes industry veterans Kumar Chandrasekaran and Prabhakar Sambandan, each with over 25 years of industry experience with major entertainment companies and brands. They serve as joint Studio Directors at the company’s production facility in India in the city of Chennai. Sally Toms, an agency veteran, runs operations.
BBC Studios Kids & Family announced two senior appointments to complete the new division’s senior management restructure designed to support its ambitious growth plans.
Katharina Pietzsch, now VP Content Sales, will lead the sales and co-production strategy for the BBC Studios Kids & Family portfolio. Working closely with the content and production teams in this senior client facing role she will manage priority accounts with responsibility for enhancing sales revenue and profit targets across co-productions, commissions and tape sale activity globally.
Pietzsch joins the division from ZDF Studios, where she was a Director in its Junior department and brings extensive experience of international sales, co-productions and co-commissions of kids and family programs. She originally joined ZDF Studios as a management trainee and has worked as Acquisitions Manager for ZDF and KiKA and Sales and Coproduction Director for ZDFS’s kids & family content.
Kelly Wood takes on the newly created role of Head of Content Strategy. Leading the high-performing content strategy team, Wood will work closely with other BBC Studios Kids & Family leads to define global and local content strategies and roll-out plans for its brands on BBC Studios global channels, third party services and digital platforms to ensure each Kids & Family show achieves maximum reach with young audiences.
Wood brings a wealth of knowledge to BBC Studios Kids & Family. Her previous role as editorial lead at Paramount Kids and Family U.K. and Ireland, saw her overseeing content and programming strategy for the Nickelodeon brand across linear and non-linear platforms in the region. Prior to this, Wood worked at Channel 4 and media agency OMD.
The College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit has appointed Disney Animation alum Dylan VanWormer as Assistant Professor in the Entertainment Arts department — which is focused on animation, concept design and game design and overseen by program Chair David Gazdowicz. VanWormer assumes his role at the College this upcoming fall semester, instructing students at various levels in their education and focusing on digital media arts, expanding into 3D animation in the spring.
In 2011, VanWormer received his BFA in computer design from Ringling College of Art and Design. He began his post-graduate career as a look development supervisor at Moonbot Studios, where he was responsible for developing, refining and executing the final look for animated characters. He continued his career at Walt Disney Studios as a lead look development artist, working on award-winning feature films Zootopia, Moana, Wreck-It-Ralph 2, Frozen 2 and Raya and the Last Dragon.
After his Disney, VanWormer was employed at General Motors, where he handled the creative oversight of the UX 3D team before transitioning to a role at Marvel Studios as a senior look development artist. There, he worked closely with the production designer and showrunners to help transpose 2D designs into detailed 3D.
DNEG announced the hiring of Academy Award and BAFTA winner Tim Burke as Visual Effects Supervisor. Burke brings more than two decades of experience to his new role and will be based out of DNEG’s London studio. “I’ve worked with DNEG as an independent VFX Supervisor for 20 years, watching the facility grow from strength-to-strength during that time, so I am very excited to be forging even closer ties with the company and the amazingly talented artists who work there, during this next chapter of my career,” said Burke.
Burke’s award-winning credits as VFX Supervisor include Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000), for which he received the Academy Award for Best Effects, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), for which he received a VES Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in an Effects Driven Motion Picture, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), which earned him a BAFTA for Best Special Visual Effects.
Burke most recently served as Production VFX Supervisor for Disney’s The Little Mermaid. His other credits as Production VFX Supervisor include Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Legend of Tarzan and the last four films in the Harry Potter franchise, with director David Yates. He also served as Production VFX Supervisor for director Alfonso Cuarón on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and for Ridley Scott on Hannibal and Black Hawk Down, amongst others.
Munich-based VFX house TRIXTER announced a leadership transition: Simone Kraus Townsend, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer/Animation Supervisor, and Christian Sommer, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Producer, will be departing their current roles, with Kraus Townsend turning her full focus to creative endeavors as Animation Supervisor. The change follows Cinesite’s acquisition of TRIXTER in 2018. Now that TRIXTER’s integration into the Cinesite group is complete, studio management has been restructured.
Transitioning into Kraus Townsend and Sommer’s leadership roles at TRIXTER will be Christina Caspers-Roemer as General Manager & Managing Director, and Christopher Hantel as Head of Finance & Managing Director. Caspers-Roemer has a background in virtual production and other cutting-edge technologies which can make filming & VFX production more creative and budget-friendly. Hantel brings 23 years of experience in the media industry with a focus on services, film production and a wide range of entrepreneurial topics.
Caspers-Roemer recently re-joined TRIXTER as Head of Studio & Business Development after working as Managing Director at Dark Bay GmbH – Europe’s largest virtual production stage. With a background in VFX and XR, she previously worked as Head of Operations & HR for TRIXTER on projects such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Black Widow, The Suicide Squad, Foundation Season 2 and more.
Hantel, who joined TRIXTER as Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director in April 2023, is a highly experienced Managing Director, CFO, and Commercial Manager. He has held many executive positions throughout his career, including serving as Commercial Manager of ARRI Media GmbH and Managing Director of Band Pro Munich GmbH.
More Exec Moves & Creative Hires
- Nexus Studios signed Love, Death + Robots: The Very Pulse of the Machine director Emily Dean to its global roster for commercial representation.
- Kavaleer Productions announced two significant hires: veteran story editor Alan Keane as Development Producer and Producer Geraldine Weber, who brings 25 years of experience to the award-winning Irish animation studio.
- AlongSide Global, having recently acquired animation studio Bonfire and launched multi-medium creative prodco Organs, welcomed Scott Pryor as Director of Production.
- Jetpack Distribution appointed Wildbrain alumni Rebecca Lugo as the company’s new Head of Global Sales.
- Moonbug Entertainment, part of Candle Media, appointed Yasmin Zahid as the company’s new Head of Distribution & Brand Partnerships, APAC.
- Camp Lucky expands its creative post talent with the addition of Flame artist Artie Peña.
- Sara Putt, Founder & MD of Sara Putt Associates, has been announced as BAFTA‘s newly elected Chair,succeeding Krishnendu Majumdar.
- Animoca Brands Co-Founder & Executive Chairman Yat Siu has been appointed to the Task Force on Promoting Web3 Development established by the Hong Kong government.
