Tag Archives: Final Draft

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Mark Fellows

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Mark Fellows – Writer – Big Time Rush, Nickelodeon; Johnny Test, Cartoon Network, & Kick Buttowski, Disney.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a copywriter for a toys company and wrote descriptions for their monster toys.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Walt Disney World Millenium Celebration at EPCOT – I was the Entertainment Manager
How did you become interested in animation?
Once I moved to LA and discovered you can let you imagination go and was confined to production and locations.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from CT, and got into animation writing for Continue reading

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Aidan McAteer

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What is your name and your current occupation? 
My name is Aidan McAteer and I’m Episodic Director at Kavaleer Productions in Dublin.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
It wasn’t crazy (kind of the opposite), but I did a brief stint in a financial firm which I thought was supposed to be animation.  I turned up on the first day and they said – hello, design our new mobile website.  I should have known something was up when they said I had to wear a suit!
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I’ve been lucky to work on lots of great stuff – I did a show in UK called “The Secret Show” for the BBC, it was really fun, but never found a huge audience, which is a shame.  I also worked on Peppa Pig (which is massively popular in the UK) with a host of very talented people.    I  had a great time working in Vancouver – it’s an amazing city and I really have landed on my feet back in Dublin working for Kavaleer on a new show called “Wildernuts”.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Dublin (Ireland). When I left animation college, there wasn’t much work there, so I moved to London. I got my first job in a traditional animation studio owned by a great guy,  Philip Vallentin, called Espresso Animation.  I  was a Continue reading
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Joelle Sellner

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What is your name and current occupation?
Joelle Sellner, freelance animation writer.

What are the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
When I was 15, I worked on the assembly line at a sweater factory. I didn’t realize I was illegal child labor, I just thought I had an awesome job where I could buy cheap sweaters. I also worked the night shift at a financial printer on Wall Street where I ordered “dinner” for investment bankers at 3 AM.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
This year I had the opportunity to write an episode of BEN 10: OMNIVERSE, Cartoon Network’s reboot of the franchise. Everyone involved is so incredibly talented it was an honor to be included. Since most of my writing has been action for boys, I loved writing comedy for girls on Mattel’s MONSTER HIGH webisodes. I also was a writer/story editor on the upcoming SAMURAI! DAYCARE web series for Smosh’s Shut Up! Cartoons channel on YouTube. We all worked hard to make it the first WGA-covered animated series created for the web. And as the only girl on staff, I was proud to write the grossest, most offensive jokes.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
As far back as I can remember, I watched cartoons. I watched them while I was getting ready for school. Then I’d come home and watch them until dinner. If the cable channels had been around then, Continue reading

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Evan Gore

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Though I am frequently called, “Evan Gore,” I am also known as “that guy who keeps looking at me” and “that guy who writes for cartoons with his wife,” and “Mr. Scoops The Ice Cream Man.”  Why, did somebody ask about me?  I am a comedy writer first, but my entire career has made me a specialist in animated comedies for the 6-14 set.  I’ve worked mostly on Disney Channel shows, usually with partner Heather Lombard, but we also were head writers on “George of the Jungle” for Cartoon Network.  These days, I work mostly solo, and mostly at Starbucks.  No, I don’t make espressos, I write freelance; mostly for overseas clients.  This year, I’ve been doing episodes for “Pound Puppies” and “Care Bears” on The Hub, but my main gig has been Story Editor of Escape Hockey, a boys action-comedy half-hour about a average sci-fi geek kid who gets imprisoned in deep space along with the girl he loves, his bully brother, and his dog.  Each episode, he has to compete in a hockey-like game against various creatures in order to stay alive.   The show is by Spanish production companies Enne Entertainment in partnership with Imira Entertainment.  The series is part of something they call “Watch & Play,” where kids can play games integrated with the episodes.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
When you look at me, you think: “Black Entertainment Television.”  It’s not that I’m black, it’s that you’re crazy.  I was writer/producer on TWO shows for BET, “Are You Hip Hop’s Biggest Fan?” and the “On The Beat,” which were quiz shows bragging the first non-white Game Show host in America.  Holla! In my younger days, I was an actor type, a receptionist/secretary type, a waiter/bartender type… and with all that typing, becoming a writer was just the next step.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
Of course I’m proud that Heather and I beat out a bunch of way more seasoned writers to get a freelance assignment in the early days of Futurama, but the show I remember most fondly was Dave The Barbarian on the Disney Channel.  It was a wickedly funny show about a barbarian named Dave with the muscles of a hero, and the heart of a needlepointer.  I also am very proud of George of the Jungle, scripts which Heather and I worked extremely hard on, and Studio B made hilarious episodes from.  It’s the funny shows I remember the best.  “Emperor’s New School” was also a very funny show, with characters so vivid, they told you what they should do.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? 

Sorry animators, I did not go to film school (I know that’s a sticking point for some folks).  I got into this through comedy writing.  I majored in short-story writing in college, then in my 20s I was an actor at Second City in Chicago, then wrote sketches for corporate clients, was partners in Chicago’s “Improv Institute,” and later got my first TV job writing Continue reading

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Brenda Chapman

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Brenda Chapman – Director/writer Pixar Animation Studios, co-owner, director, writer, illustrator at Chapman Lima Productions.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Walking beans (walking through soy bean fields and cutting the weeds out), working in the kitchen of a retirement home (it’s horrifying what you find in coffee cups after breakfast!), stuffing envelopes for an insurance company (paper cuts!), working the service desk at Kmart (Blue Light Specials!) – ALL were crazy for OH so many different reasons.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
THE LITTLE MERMAID – my first job as a story artist, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST – trying to make Belle a stronger Disney heroine than the ones of the past, THE LION KING – taking the ‘B’ movie and working hard to make it an ‘A+’, all at Disney… PRINCE OF EGYPT – trying to create the first animated movie at DreamWorks – but then ANTZ jumped in before us – it was great putting together all the right people and creating a new studio… and BRAVE at Pixar – creating the first female main character heroines at that studio, completely inspired by my relationship with my daughter, my love of adventure, faerie tales and Scotland! – a true labor of love.

How did you become interested in animation?
I loved to draw all the time when I was a little girl. I watched Bugs Bunny and other Warner Bros. cartoons everyday after school, loved the old Disney films… When I realized Continue reading

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Dani Michaeli

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Dani Michaeli, currently story editor on “The Aquabats Super Show!” premiering this Fall on the Hub!!

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
At ages eleven and twelve, I performed as a ventriloquist at talent shows, birthday parties and on local television. After college, I worked as an apple, giving out free samples of apple juice on the streets of San Francisco. I worked in a Halloween super store. I took pictures of people sitting on Santa’s lap in a department store. I worked in a low budget chemical plant and had my arms dipped in some fluid that dissolved the rubber gloves I was wearing. I had a temp job that involved reading aloud numbers ranging from one to four, although most were either two or three — so a one or a four was kind of a big deal. I had a lot of crazy jobs.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My current job on “The Aquabats Super Show!” and also “South Park”, “SpongeBob SquarePants”, “The Mighty B!” and “Batman: The Brave and the Bold”.  I’ve been lucky to be involved with some of the best and most special shows on TV.

How did you become interested in animation? 
I come to animation from being a fan as well as having a degree in filmmaking. Before starting in my first animation job, Continue reading