OUR FACULTY
Director: Family Guy, Scooby Doo, Bordertown, and Central Park
Animator: Warner Bros and Chuck Jones, Tim Burton and Steven Spielberg
Credits on: The Simpsons, Pink Panther, Hercules, Pirates of the Caribbean, XMEN, Silent Hill, Gears of War 2, Life of Pi and more.
GAVIN DELL
Founder | Lead Instructor
Gavin works directly with our students daily, providing instruction, hands-on guidance, and critiques with our students.
Gavin is a Writer, Director, Animator, Storyboard Artist and Character Designer. Originally from Kansas City, he moved to Los Angeles in 1989 to attend California Institute of the Arts for animation.
He has worked on over 25 films, games and television series at nearly every major Hollywood Studio.
Director: First Flight, Lord of the West
Visual Effects: Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Thor: Ragnarok, The Fate of the Furious, Sin City:A Dame to Kill For
Animator: Shrek 2, Shark Tale, The Prince of Egypt, The Croods, Kung Fu Panda, Megamind, How to Train Your Dragon
KYLE JEFFERSON
Instructor
Kyle is a creator and filmmaker with over twenty-five years of Hollywood experience. He spent seventeen years working with Dreamworks Animation as an artist and filmmaker on more than fourteen feature films. He has served in a wide range of roles in the industry such as Creative Director, Development Director, Previsualization Supervisor, Director of Cinematography, Animation Director, Pre-production Director, and BaseFX Director. He has worked on many notable productions and games such as Battleship Ninghai, Song of the Creator, Out of the Nest, Gana, Lord of the West, Spider-Man Homecoming, Sin City—A Dame to Kill For, Megamind, The Prince of Egypt, The Croods and Shrek.
FEATURED GUEST INSTRUCTORS
Our guest instructors are industry leaders in a variety of disciplines within the Animation Industry. They join our courses via zoom to present lectures, demonstrate skills, offer insight into projects they are working on and share what is happening in the industry right now. We’ve included short videos of these Featured Instructors to give you an idea of both the variety and value of our Guest Instructor lectures.
Cinematics: Blizzard's Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, World of Warcraft
Animation: Ferdinand, spies in Disguise, The Willobys, Mitchells vs the Machines, Spirit Untamed, Reelfx Return to the Outback
MORTEN ENEVOLDSEN
Morten is Currently working as a senior animator at Epic Games, with expertise in 3D animation. He brings our students tremendous insight into the character acting needed to bring an animation to life.
He is a Danish animator with more than 15 years worth of experience, including feature animation, tv, vfx, cinematics, AR, VR and TV commercials.
Storyboards and Animation: The Simpsons, Spongebob the Movie, Fairly Odd Parents, Rick and Morty, Brickleberry,
GAVIN FREITAS
Gavin graduated from the Academy of Art in San Francisco CA in Animation. He has Animated and Storyboarded on numerous TV shows for the past 13 years including on the hit TV show, The Simpsons, with over 90 episodes to his credit.
In 2019 Gavin received an EMMY Honors certificate for his work on The SImpsons for Outstanding Animated Program. He also worked on, Fairly Odd Parents, Spongebob the Movie, Rick and Morty, Brickleberry, and Directed pilots for Howie Mandel. Gavin also Directed a featured documentary about the life and times of legendary voice actress, June Foray.
Director: Stillwater, Hamster and Gretel, Barbie Mysteries :The Great Horse Chase
Storyboard: Stillwater, Housebroken, Onyx Equinox, Wacky Races
AMBER TORNQUIST HOLLINGER
Amber is a Peabody and Emmy Winning Director, Annie - nominated Director and Story Artist. She grew up in San Luis Obispo, California. From a young age she was intrigued with marrying her love of art with her love of film. After a Freshman year at CalArts she was hired for her first professional animation job at the age of 18. With over 36 properties on her resume her passion has not wavered.
Her leadership style is rooted in communication, mutual respect, and teamwork. She works hard, laughs loud, embraces challenges, and will most likely Moonwalk out of the room (poorly).
Lead Animator: The Emperor’s New Groove, Hercules
Animation: The Princess and the Frog, The Lion King
JAMES LOPEZ
James is a veteran Disney animator who has been working as a professional in the animation industry for 30 years.
His credits at Disney include being a Lead Animator on films such as 'The Emperor's New Groove' and 'Hercules' and as an animator on the character "Dr. Facilier" in 'The Princess and the Frog' and "Timon" in 'The Lion King'.
He has also worked for studios such as Warner Bros., Dreamworks and Nickelodeon in both television and features and has performed a variety of positions that range from Directing, Storyboarding, Layout, Art Direction, Production Design and Character Design.
Director: Futurama, Dan vs., Danger & Eggs, Fanboy & Chum Chum, The Grim Adventures of Bill & Mandy
BRIAN SHEESLEY
Brian Sheesley is an independent director, producer and visual artist who has worked in television, film and book illustration. He has six Emmy Awards, two Primetime and four Daytime. Over his 26 years in animation, Sheesley has focused on comedy series including Futurama, King of the Hill, The Critic, Camp Lazlo, Fanboy and Chum Chum, Regular Show and Uncle Grandpa.
He began his career working as an animator and character designer on the series Family Dog for CBS. He currently has wrapped a new series, Camp WWE, for the WWE Network, and continues to illustrate for a book series entitled Fizzopolis.
Cinematics: Blizzard's Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, World of Warcraft
Animation: Ferdinand, spies in Disguise, The Willobys, Mitchells vs the Machines, Spirit Untamed, Reelfx Return to the Outback
ROBERT SLEDGE
Robert has played a variety of roles in numerous animation productions, including Animator, Character Designer, Production Board Artist, Prop Designer, Story Artist, Storyboard Artist, Visual Development Artist. He is best know for Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Tigger Movie, Pink Panther & Pals, and Alpha and Omega.
Director: The Emperor’s New Groove, Chicken Little, Cats Don’t Dance, The Garfield Movie
Animatior: The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Tom and Jerry: The Movie
MARK DINDAL
Mark Dindal is an American animation film director, writer and voice actor. He started as an Effects Animator at Disney and went on to have roles as an Animator in the Disney Renaissance Films The Little Mermaid (1989) and Aladdin (1992), as well as Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992).
He made his directorial debut with the film Cats Don't Dance, which won an Annie Award for Best Animated Film. He is best known for directing the comedy classic The Emperor's New Groove, as well as Chicken Little and The Garfield Movie.
GUEST INSTRUCTORS
Our guest instructors are industry leaders in a variety of disciplines within the Animation Industry. They join our courses via zoom to present lectures, demonstrate skills, offer insight into projects they are working on and share what is happening in the industry right now.
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JULES AGUIMATANG
Director at Walt Disney Television Animation, Story Artist Elena of Avalor, Mulan, G-Force, Green Eggs and Ham, Valiant, Lion King 2 and many more.
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MARK BACHAND
Experienced Character and Prop Designer for The SpongeBob Movie Sponge Out of Water, Guess Who Scooby Doo? Histeria, Teen Titans, The Looney Tunes Show, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Duck Dodgers, and many more.
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BRIAN HORTON
Creative Director Insomniac Games Spiderman, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, Art Director Tomb Raider, and Silent Hill Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb.
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RON HUGHART
Supervising Director of American Dad for over 15 years, Director of Mucha Lucha, Futurama, Ren and Stimpy, Family Dog, Mighty Mouse.
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TODD JACOBSEN
Assistant Director, Animator, Feature clean up artist and Story Artist Princess and the Frog, Prince of Egypt, Curious George, Ren and Stimpy, Wabbit, Looney Tunes, The Simpsons and Future Worm.
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DAN JEUP
Story Supervisor and Feature Animator Pixar/ Disney, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid, Free Birds, Stoner Cats.
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ERNIE KEEN
Animator, Story artist for Warner Brothers, Disney, Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo, Woody Woodpecker, Iron Giant, The Simpsons, Osmosis Jones
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JASON LETHCOE
Director, Writer, Animator on Little Mermaid, Story Artist of more than 30 years with Disney, Dreamworks, Sony, and Paramount. He has credits on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Open Season and Author of a dozen children's books just to name few!
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GREG MANWARING
Animator and storyboard artist Space Jam A New Legacy, The Iron Giant, Lion King, Tarzan, Pocahontas,, Ren and Stimpy Animaniacs and many more…
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GEOFF MARIAN
Story Artist for Warner Bros.
Teen Titans Go! WordGirl, The Awesomes, Animaniacs, Disney Jr. Ready for Preschool
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JEFF MERGHART
Character Designer and Visual Development Artist for Video Games, Films and Television The Mark of Kri, Ralph Breaks the Internet, An American Tail, Disney, Sony Playstation
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MIKE MILO
Director, Story Artist, Animator, Character Designer with over 30 years in the industry. Scooby Doo, Phineas and Pherb, Chowder, Woody Woodpecker, Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, Tasmania, and more…
LISA BLANCHARD
Student Success Manager and Admissions
Lisa has been a marketing consultant in the healthcare industry for many years. She also has extensive experience working as an intake specialist for college-level vocational training. Lisa is a fantastic resource for students and will be the point person to contact for admissions. Reach out at lisa@hollywoodanimationacademy.com to learn more about our animation teachers, game animation courses, and online animation classes in Kansas City.