[big_header]CHECK BACK OFTEN! MORE SPEAKERS BEING ADDED DAILY![/big_header]
[big_header]Speakers[/big_header]
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Raquel has worked in a variety of academic and professional positions in Asia, Canada and Europe.. Her strengths lie in her ability to conceive, create and develop audiovisual properties and preparing them for the international market. She is a member of the Canadian Picture Pioneers, SGAE, ASIFA and EGEDA, and has written software programs and books that are now considered to be the industry standard. She has worked on, produced, directed and received accolades for various animated productions.
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Camille is currently a Producer with Google Spotlight Stories.
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She was also Controller of Children’s, Youth and Family programs for U.K.’s ITV Network. Vanessa developed key strategies for The LEGO Company’s entry into the global and movie business and was promoted to managing director of LEGO’s newly created TV, film and digital company, Create TV & Film, where her credits included the multi-award-winning film and toy franchise Bionicle, popular pre-school title Little Robots, and cult sci-fi film Ultramarines, which she executive-produced.
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Year 2013 saw Mirsand ltd. presenting the audience Bazelev’s new 3D CGI animated TV series Alisa Knows What To Do! 24×26 mints. The plot is based on the extremely popular Sci-Fi novels by famous Russian author Kir Bulychiov. Following the success of the series this year 2016 Mirsand Ltd. presents Bazelev’s 3D CGI feature My Cool Dad (Spring 2017). This feature follows new Alisa’s adventures. Mirsand Ltd. and Bazelevs boast by launching Alisa, a prequel (2018) TV series that’s an official co-production with European Union (Spain) for the pre-school TV audience. Valeria is working extensively towards looking for international co-production partners for the project.
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Previously, Ducard served as Head of West Coast Partnerships, managing film, TV and original content partners.
Prior to joining YouTube, he served as senior vice president of digital distribution for the Americas at Paramount Pictures and oversaw distribution of content to online, mobile and digital platforms.
A native of the Bronx, Malik earned his B.A. degree from Columbia University and his MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management.
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Prior to arriving at DreamWorks, Edwards cultivated her production skills at Wild Brain and Curious Pictures, where she created content for both television and the web. Her first experience with animation came at Colossal Pictures, where she arrived following her introduction to the industry as a production coordinator in live action. Edwards is a member of the Producers Guild of America. She grew up in Minneapolis and attended Webster University in St. Louis, where she studied Media Communications with an emphasis in Film.
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Prior to joining DHX, Josh was Senior Creative Director and Executive Producer at Spin Master where he led TV and content development. Josh also spearheaded Spin Master’s YouTube initiative, SpindoTV. Prior to Spin Master, Josh was SVP of Content for Brandissimo where he led creative for TV animation as well as game and virtual world development. Josh led creative for the NFL’s digital youth initiative, NFL Rush Zone, as well as other projects for the NFL, Sprout, and Cabbage Patch Kids. Josh lives in Los Angles with his wife, two children, two dogs, and anxiety.
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AGE is focused on the creation, development, production, distribution and licensing of leading children’s properties on a worldwide basis. Some of AGP’s brands include: The Care Bears, Madballs, Holly Hobbie, and the forthcoming Netflix original stop-motion series Buddy Thunderstruck.
Sean has previously held development and/or production positions in television or feature films at The Hatchery, Radar Pictures and CBS. He is a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
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Among the titles L.E.G has worked includes Pixar favorites like Finding Nemo, Toy Story 1 and 2, Monsters, Inc., and A Bug’s Life, stop-motion favorites such as Coraline and ParaNorman, , Sony Pictures Animation’s Surf’s Up and Open Season 2 and animation classics such as Yellow Submarine, Disney’s Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Bambi, Lady and The Tramp and The Lion King. L.E.G. also reated the EPK, webisodes and DVD extras for Don Hahn’s lauded documentary on Disney animation, Waking Sleeping Beauty.
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Among her producer and execproducer credits are The Simpsons, Family Guy, Duckman, Edith Ann, Rugrats, Dexter’s Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, Looney Tunes and more. In addition, Sherry has been a prominent entertainment industry executive, heading-up and launching new divisions and innovating new content and productions for such studios as Klasky Csupo, Hanna Barbera, Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox Television, Nickelodeon, Imagine Television, Walt Disney’s Touchstone Television, Carsey-Warner and The Disney Channel. In 2006, Sherry shifted her focus to New Media, where she created, co-founded and launched ZooKazoo.com, an innovative new virtual world for kids ages 6 to12. Sherry continued her entrepreneurial efforts with PopStar Club, Inc., where she created and developed the multi-platform media brand, The Beatrix Girls.
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During her tenure as Nickelodeon’s top animation executive from 1992-1997, Mary was responsible for numerous award-winning animated series including Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Angry Beavers, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Rocko’s Modern Life, The Ren & Stimpy Show, The Wild Thornberries, as well as the development of the hit show Spongebob Squarepants with creator Stephen Hillenburg. She also supervised the creative program development and production of Nickelodeon’s first original animated series Rugrats, Doug and The Ren & Stimpy Show. Before joining Nickelodeon, Mary was a producer at Hahn Productions where she supervised the development and production of animated television specials, direct to video, and music videos. She is also the founder of the Nickelodeon Animation Studio Mentoring Program that was formed in partnership with Communities In Schools.
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In July of 2015, Hartman launched his own entertainment network, the Noog Network, a free interactive app on the App Store. This past August, Butch embarked into the world of graphic novels with his original new comic book Three O’Clock Club (co-created with Jordan Gorfinkel), released by Lion Forge Comics. Butch and wife Julieann are the founders of Hartman House, a charitable, non-profit organization that benefits needy children and families around the world.
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Her latest series, the animated action adventure comedy Xiaolin Chronicles, airs on Cartoon Network International, Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, and others. Prior to this, she created the Emmy-winning hit series Xiaolin Showdown, which was sold to Warner Bros Animation and ran for four seasons on Cartoon Network worldwide. She is also developing a slate of movie projects and animated series, including Super Terracotta, Xiaolin Dragons and Hulala Girls. Prior to switching to the creative side, Christy spent 15 years working on the corporate side with Sony Pictures, DirecTV, and TV Guide, in distribution, licensing, and business development.
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For nearly two decades, Keenan led the development and production of television series, DVD features and online shorts for properties at Warner Bros. Animation. He was also instrumental in the launch of Kids’ WB! and served as head of programming for its first three years. Previously, he was recruited by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment as story editor an has also served as Director of Children’s Entertainment for Capital Cities/ ABC. After leaving Warner Bros. in 2005, Christopher Keenan set up Creating4Kids, Inc., an independent consulting firm, consulting and story editing on Amazon Studios’ Emmy-award preschool series Tumble Leaf; developing Fruit Ninja for Halfbrick Entertainment; leading master classes in animation development at Cartoon Network Academy in Abu Dhabi; shaping the series development of Umigo for WildBrain/DHX Media and executive producing Iconicles for Create Media.
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Previously, she was Vice-President, Project Development & Sales, at Starz Animation Toronto, producer of such films as 9 and Gnomeo and Juliet, and Sr. Director of Development, Original Series at Cartoon Network, helming the development department for all animated and live-action series for children 6-11 years old. She graduated with honors from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television.
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Kleeman is advisory board chair to the international children’s TV festival (Prix Jeunesse), a Governor of the Television Academy, and a board member of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. He was a 2013 Senior Fellow of the Fred Rogers Center. In 2014, he received the “Pioneer” Award from Kids @ Play Interactive.
Kleeman travels worldwide seeking best practices in children’s and family media, technology and products. He has given conference talks or seminars on six continents (anyone need a speaker in Antarctica?). He writes extensively for trade and general press, including frequent commentaries for the Huffington Post and Kidscreen.
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Earlier in her career, she worked at Yeson Animation Studios and was successful in transforming them into one of the most prolific studios in Korea and was production executive for all the studio’s productions, including Dilbert, Sammy, Ed Edd n Eddy, Fairly Odd Parents, Family Guy and Oh Yeah! Cartoon Season 2. Joining Toonzone Studios in 2001 as vice-president, she was involved with the production of Sony’s feature Eight Crazy Nights, Fox’s Emmy-award winning The Simpsons and King of the Hill; Disney’s The Proud Family; Nickelodeon’s Chalkzone, and Warner Bros. Mucha Lucha.
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Babar is a Principal of the Lakson Group, one of Pakistan’s largest conglomerates, and a Director of the Express Media Group,the second largest media company in Pakistan.
He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and is active in YPO Emirates & YPO Pakistan.
Babar is a member of the Alumni Trustee Committee of Brandeis University from where he received his M.B.A. He received his B.A. in Finance from Bentley College. Babar’s prior work experience includes Credit Suisse and High Street Advisors.
He is a distance runner and a triathlete.
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In 2003 Rick returned to Double Negative as Head of 3D (a role he held for six years), combining his duties as Head of 3D with CG Supervision on films such as Bridget Jones II: The Edge of Reason, Kingdom of Heaven and Stardust. He returned to full time CG Supervision on Sherlock Holmes which went on to win the VES for Outstanding Supporting VFX. Rick has subsequently worked on the likes of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 & Part 2 (which won BAFTA and was Oscar-nominated for its visual effects), Man of Steel, Thor: The Dark World and Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Most recently Rick completed work as CG Supervisor on Star Trek: Beyond.
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Marco received the Friz Freling Lifetime Achievement Award in Animation in 2008, and returned to Wales in July 2009 to receive an Honorary Doctorate from his former college.
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McHugh was co-executive producer on the Emmy-nominated and Annie-winning series Creature Comforts for Aardman/CBS. He is currently producing Ghostopolis at Disney with Hugh Jackman attached to star, Tommysaurus Rex at Universal with Tom McCarthy writing and directing, and the animated feature Cardboard for Fox Feature Animation with Chris Wedge directing.
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In 1999, Michael moved to St. Petersburg, Russia to work with the CTB Film Company. In 2002, he established the International Sales Department at Melnitsa Animation and brought Russia’s first post-Soviet animated features, Little Longnose, Alosha Popovitch, and Dobrynya Nikitich to the international market. In 2005, he became a partner at Moscow’s Aeroplane Productions, where he is a co-creator, writer, producer and English voice director on the hit series The Fixies as well as the company’s Director of International Development, responsible for the brand’s continued growth in international licensing. Michael is the co-creator, co-producer, story editor, and voice director for Toonbox Animation’s pre-school series, Kit^n^Kate, the first IP outside of the “Angry Birds” franchise to be added to Rovio’s consumer products portfolio.
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Candi has been a stalwart performer for every major studio since voicing Steven Speilberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures. She has voiced thousands of hours of cartoons and is most recognized for her roles as Astro Boy (the new Astro Boy), The Flea (Mucha Lucha), Cheese, Madame Foster and Coco (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends), Mrs. Wakeman (My Life As A Teenage Robot), Dexter (Dexter’s Lab) and most recently Goat, Owl Woman Lady (Pig, Goat, Banana, Cricket), Kid Pickles, Cleevil (Puss in Boots), Vambre’s Brain (Mighty Magiswords) and Granny (Wabbit). She is also the official Rankin Bass voice of Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, and she is back performing stand-up, starring in musicals and writing her memoir.
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Rick’s career also included a stint as executive vice president of Technicolor, leading the business unit that specializes in the creation of digital assets for the gaming and the animation industry. Rick supervised both a Burbank-based team of artists and liaisoned with Technicolor’s India-based animation studio, Paprikaas. He was also the founder and president of Reach Games, which provided digital creation services to the games industry. Prior to that, Rick served as CEO of Mainframe Entertainment, a publicly-traded CGI animation studio, and was also the President and COO of The Harvey Entertainment Company, where he was in charge of managing the business and creative affairs of hugely popular family franchises such as Casper The Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich. He was also a VP in charge of developing features at Electric Pictures Co. and a senior VP at Live Entertainment, where he oversaw the acquisition, development and production of feature films and development.
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Before joining Disney, Odermatt worked for Industrial Light & Magic as a character supervisor/modeler. His background also includes working for Gingko Design as an industrial designer and as a CAD manager for a Los Angeles architectural firm.His professional affiliations include ASIFA, SIGGRAPH, VES and AMPAS.
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Osborne’s breakout was DreamWorks’ critically acclaimed animated box office hit, Kung Fu Panda, which premiered Out of Competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival going on to receive an Academy Award®-nomination for Best Animated Feature. Among Osborne’s other credits include the animated stop-motion short film, More, which received an Academy Award®-nomination for Best Animated Short Film, and an Annie Award-nomination.
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Ellen is now an independent VFX supervisor and producer. Her work with blockbuster Asian projects Hero and Monster Hunt have won her 2 Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Visual Effects. Monster Hunt was a huge success and became China’s highest grossing film of all time in 2015.
Ellen whilst enjoys being a producer and supervisor, she equally enjoys being an artist where she can be hands-on to create some of the stunning imageries that we see on the screen. Her work on Frozen, Zootopia and most recently Moana is the proof that Ellen is a very versatile artist.
Ellen is a member of AMPAS and VES.
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As the Head of DreamWorksTV, Rawlings oversees development of new projects and supervises production of over 1000 episodes of content per year. With Birk’s leadership, DreamWorksTV has quickly become the #1 major kids entertainment brand on YouTube. Inspired by the opportunity of a rapidly changing digital landscape Birk and his team have succeeded in carving out a distinctive space that entertains kids while giving filmmakers unprecedented creative freedom.
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Among the many projects Rollman has created and produced are the Emmy-nominated NFL: Rush Zone, Sea Rescue, The Wildlife Docs, Madea’s Tough Love, Iesodo, and LBX: Little Battlers Experience. Other credits include: X-Men, The Avengers, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Transformers, Digimon, and The Power Rangers. Animated features include: Ultimate Avengers, Invincible Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Thor, Next Avengers, Planet Hulk, and Hulk Vs.. Rollman is currently the supervising producer for Skylanders Academy, an original animated series in production for Netflix by Activision-Blizzard Studios.
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Theresa has since served as a vfx supervisor on several motion pictures, including The Nativity Story, Martian Child, Conspiracy Theory, Stepmom and X-Men. While at Weta Digital in New Zealand, she advanced from senior compositor on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers to working as digital effects supervisor on the final film in the trilogy, The Return of the King. Her composite supervisor credits also include Joy, Oblivion, Fast Five and Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian. In recent years, Theresa has moved into the studio production offices as post vfx supervisor on Guardians of the Galaxy, Furious 7, Ben Hur and Dr. Strange. She is currently working on Universal’s Fast 8.
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Prior to founding August Media, Moy was the co-CEO of Singapore-based Sparky Animation, Senior VP at UTV Disney and CTO at UTV International—positions where he led the creation and marketing of content across both traditional and digital genres.
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Eliot has founded 2 startups in the Media space, and holds patents in digital advertising. Has been a mentor to startups throughout Los Angeles.
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Currently Bill is working with leading adult animation studio Mondo Media on the launch of their recently announced Mondo Premium channel on the Chernin/AT & T owned “VRV” SVOD platform. He also works extensively with market leading, global studio Prime Focus Animation, devoting substantial time to helping develop and produce its growing slate of new, high quality CGI projects, in both Television and Feature Films.
Before launching HPE, Bill was a partner at Moonscoop, the global production distribution company, where he launched VOD Kabillion Network with partner Comcast, and Studio 100.
Prior to that Schultz ran Film Roman for nine years, taking it public (NASDAQ). Afterwards he assisted Turner Entertainment in setting up Cartoon Network Studios, supervising production on creator driven hit series Ed, Edd & Eddy and Courage The Cowardly Dog.
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From 2009 through 2013, Sander was President, Kids and Family Entertainment for FremantleMedia Enterprises. Before joining FME, Sander was President of Warner Bros. Animation and responsible for the production of theatrical, television and made-for-video animated programming. Sander also worked with Warner Bros. Pictures to develop animated feature films based on all-new characters, as well as the Studio’s classic Looney Tunes, DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera properties. Series developed under his guidance include Legion of Super Heroes, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! and Tom and Jerry Tales, What’s New Scooby Doo, Xiaolin Showdown, Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited, Johnny Test and Krypto the Superdog. Prior to his tenure at Warner Bros. Animation, Sander served in various top leadership positions, such as Sony Pictures Family Entertainment’s first president, Columbia TriStar TV Children’s Programming’s president and exec VP of TMS Entertainment.
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He was the first creative director of MTV and the last president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. Fred was the founder of Next New Networks (acquired by YouTube). He’s on the board of directors of Sawhorse Media, and was the first investor in Tumblr.
Frederator Networks is Channel Frederator, the leading online cartoon network, Frederator Studios, an independent production company with hits on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, Cartoon Hangover, the home of Bravest Warriors and Bee & PuppyCat (the most funded web series Kickstarter in history), and Frederator Books. Frederator distributes hundreds of independently owned, animator operated, YouTube channels.
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His path began in music and live-event production prior to studying law at the University of Central Florida. Originally working as a VFX coordinator by day and sound engineer by night, he’s since merged his knowledge of legal principles, business methodologies and technical skill set to strategically solve creative objectives. His ability to approach creative initiatives from a macro view has resulted in campaigns for Netflix, ESPN, Lionsgate, The Weinstein Company and HBO, among others.
Silverman continuously stays ahead of the curve in advancements in industry technology, challenges traditional models while cultivating the future of agency/studio integration, and thrives on innovating creative new ways to push the envelope forward in the VFX, Motion Design and Animation worlds.
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KinoAtis also produces animated TV series such as the Space Dogs Family series, a 104-part production, which has received over 300 million views on YouTube. Vadim has also produced the new TV series Ai Planet and is also working on a new documentary titled Animation: Digital Revolution. He began his career in animation working for American companies Animatek International and Blue Planet. He founded his animation studio in Mosco in 2005. In 2015, Animation Magazine selected KinoAtis as one of its Top 25 animation companies to watch.
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Her numerous film, TV, gaming and digital credits include Star Trek Beyond, Warcraft, The Shack, Bad Santa 2, The Promise, Gods of Egypt, Kong, Fast and Furious 7, Edge of Tomorrow, Pacific Rim, Lucy, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Birdman, Twilight Breaking Dawn 2, The Amazing Spider-Man and Divergent.
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Tatiana’s other project is “Cartoons in the Cinema,” an event where kids from 3 to 6 y.o. go to movie theaters to watch the latest episodes of the most popular preschool animated shows on the big screen.
The audience knows Tatiana Tsyvareva as a host in the live show Let’s Go to the Cinema.
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Annette graduated from the Anderson School at UCLA with a MBA. She has a BS from Virginia Commonwealth University. She regularly attends KidScreen, MIPJr, MIPCOM, and the World Animation and VFX Summit. Annette is a bit of a geek for business and enjoys attending seminars, and conferences.
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His other credits include Fast and Furious 6, R.I.P.D., Fast Five, The Thing, Wolverine, Watchmen, The Matrix sequels, Tropic Thunder and Panic Room, to name a few. He has also serve as visual effects supervisor for Proof Inc. on such films as Fast Five, Fast and Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Too Fast Too Furious, and Underworld Rise of the Lycans. Alex has collaborated with many talented directors including Justin Lin, The Wachowskis, David Fincher, Zach Snider and Oliver Stone. In his various roles, he directs teams of digital artists while collaborating with directors, production designers, special effects supervisors and stunt coordinators to actualize the director’s vision.
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Rene is also a Voiceover Producer at Verité Voiceover and has worked as a Voice and Casting Director on numerous animation projects including: DC Nation, Justice League Adventures, Cloud Bread, Hot Wheels – Origin Of Awesome, The Snow Queen, The Nutcracker Sweet, Monsuno, Polly Pocket, Monster High and Stan Lee’s Cosmic Crusaders among others, as well as numerous video game titles such as: Payday 2, Falling Skies The Game, How To Train Your Dragon 2 The Video Game and The Elder Scrolls Online.
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Prior to joining Disney, West worked for Encyclopedia Britannica on several educational films in Chicago. He painted and animated on The Beastie Boys’ music video “Shadrack,” and animated pixie dust for the Michael Jackson “California Raisin” commercial. West’s first animated features were Rover Dangerfield and Bebe’s Kids.
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In 2013, Diana joined producer Yuri Moskvin to lead the global distribution of animation company Wizart, where she handled features such as Snow Queen, Snow Queen 2 and Sheep and Wolves. The studio also launched the Spanish-Russian co-production YOKO TV series. Last year, Diana launched a new animation department at leading Russian broadcaster CTC Media. She also consults with the Russia’s largest animation studio RIKI on global development and distribution. She closed several deals for RIKI’s trilogy of feature films Kikoriki and is also in charge of communication with investors in Hong Kong and China.