Joel Kuwahara is Co-Founder and President of Production for Bento Box Entertainment, FOX Entertainment’s prolific, award-winning animation studio. Founded in 2009 and acquired by FOX in 2019, Bento Box has produced over 20 series with more than 500 episodes, including Bob’s Burgers, The Great North, Krapopolis, Grimsburg, Hazbin Hotel and Koala Man, to name a few.

Kuwahara is also at the forefront of technological innovation in the animation community, having been the principal driver behind the development and implementation of Bento Box Entertainment’s industry-leading, all-digital production pipeline. This groundbreaking, state-of-the-art model is the only such system used in primetime animation and has transformed the production process worldwide. The landmark digital process received a Kidscreen Award for Technology and Innovation in 2014.

Prior to co-founding Bento Box, Kuwahara was a producer on FOX’s animation juggernaut The Simpsons, as well as The Simpsons Movie. He also served as a producer at Sony Animation and Warner Bros. Animation and was Vice President of Production at Icebox Animation.

Always one to embrace technology as an essential tool in advancing creative and the art of animation, Kuwahara successfully transitioned The Simpsons from film to digital; has worked closely with software developers to improve their product offering for animation production, such as Harmony and Storyboard Pro; and in 2000, he was the first to implement an all-FLASH pipeline for network television. Today, he serves as an advisor to several technology companies, including those exploring AI applications for animation.

In 2000, Kuwahara took a sabbatical in Dharamsale, India, where he shared his love for and expertise in technology by spearheading the effort to digitize the archives of the 14th Dalai Lama. This project included training the monks on how to edit and build-out their own self-sustaining digital lab.