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Jay Francis
VP Current Series, Diversity & Inclusion - Walt Disney TVA
In his creative role as Executive Director of Original Series, Jay was instrumental in the development of Disney XD’s first original animation series, “Kick Buttowski”. Currently, Jay oversees all creative elements of Disney Channel’s “Phineas and Ferb”. Additionally, Jay works extensively with the casting, legal, marketing, and programming divisions. Prior to joining Disney Television Animation, Jay held the position of VP and General Manager of LEVEL13.NET, Film Roman’s internet subsidiary. In addition to his duties as VP, Jay also handled all of the company’s artistic and production recruitment. Previous to this, he co-founded two independent entertainment companies and worked at DIC Entertainment as a producer.
Liliana Reyes
As Senior Vice President of Content for Portfolio Entertainment, Liliana Reyes leads the company’s development of animation and live-action for television and digital media content across all platforms. Liliana has a successful track record as an executive producer and development executive with wide-ranging experience from creative development to television production and distribution. Previously, she served as Vice President of Development for 9 Story Media Group where for six years she spearheaded development of the company’s original animated and live-action productions. Prior to that, she was VP of Acquisitions and Co-productions at Salter Street Films, Canada’s leading producer of comedy content. As one of the earliest development executives to recognize and advance digital content, Liliana served as co-executive producer of the ground-breaking animated series “Chilly Beach” (CBC), the first web-to-TV series in Canada. Most recently, Reyes co-created and steered development for Doomsday Brothers, Portfolio’s first adult animated comedy series for Télétoon la nuit and Canada’s Adult Swim Channel and “Where Oliver Fits” (Treehouse TV), a preschool web series adapted from the popular children’s picture book by Canadian illustrator Cale Atkinson. Other credits include the award-winning “Almost Naked Animals” (YTV; Cartoon Network), “Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars” (Disney Television; CBC), “Numb Chucks” (YTV; Cartoon Network), Cache Craze (YTV) and “3 Amigonauts” (YTV).
Anjelica Casillas
With more than fifteen years of experience in visual effects, Anjelica is an expert in 3D production pipelines, and was manager of character and motion-production assets at Rhythm & Hues. She was responsible for staffing artists for features, commercials and special projects, and worked closely with producers and supervisors to develop resource schedules, address and facilitate production issues, and collaborated with the studio’s in-house software group and technical supervisors to enhance tools and workflow for artists. Angelica was instrumental in the production of : the “Night at the Museum” and “Alvin & The Chipmunks” franchises; the Academy Award-winning “Life of Pi”, “Golden Compass”, and the Oscar nominated “Snow White and the Huntsman” and “Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Anjelica earned a BA in Communication Arts from LMU and studied film production and business at UCLA.
Brooke Keesling
Brooke has worked in the animation and VFX industry for decades as a filmmaker, in recruiting & development, and in education. Prior to joining Bento Box, Brooke recruited animation talent for Cartoon Network, Disney, and Warner Bros.
Keesling earned her MFA at CalArts where she produced the stop-motion film, Meatclown and the Student Academy Award winning film Boobie Girl. Upon graduation, she worked in practical and miniature VFX on many films such as Inception, The Dark Knight, Hugo, and The Aviator. Brooke is the Vice President of ASIFA Hollywood, a member of Women in Animation, on the advisory board of the GLAS Animation Festival, and she teaches in the Character Animation department at CalArts.
Pete Michels
Originally from New Jersey, Pete Michels earned a BFA in Illustration from Jersey City State College and an MFA in Animation from UCLA. After landing a job on “The Simpsons” in 1990, Pete quickly moved up the ranks to become a Director by 1995. Staying on to direct for several more seasons, Pete then accepted a post as Supervising Director on “Family Guy”. Eventually directing more than
a dozen “Family Guy” episodes, including the direct to video movie “Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story”. Pete is currently Supervising Director on Adult Swim’s new show “Rick and Morty”, coming this Fall, and continues painting watercolor landscapes as time will allow. He and his wife, Emily, have two sons, Sam, and Eddie, and live in Stevenson Ranch, CA.
Lee Lanier
Lee has worked at Buena Vista Visual Effects at Walt Disney Studios and worked as senior animator on “Antz” and “Shrek.” His work has been featured at Sundance, Slamdance, SXSW, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Smithsonian Institution. A world-renowned expert in the VFX field, Lee has written high-end software books that have sold 25,000 copies, has authored VFX training videos for Lynda.com, has taught at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, is a member of VES (Visual Effects Society), and is the executive director of the Dam Short Film Festival.
Vlad is a CG modler, shader and texture artist. For over 10 years he has been working in different areas of the animation industry such as, Advertising for some of the most popular games, tv spots, game cinematicsautomotive rendering & product design. Vlad currently works as a freelance artist at various VFX shops around Los Angeles. Vlad is a graduate from The Art Institute of California Los Angeles in 2005 with a Bachelors Degree in Media Arts & Animation.
Vlad Pineda
Aglaia Mortcheva
Charles daCosta
Aglaia Mortcheva is an animator, character designer and freelance illustrator. She has animated for South Park, designed characters for Klasky Csupo, Nickelodeon, Disney and Fox TV Animation among others. She also lends her voice to Vendetta, the green villain from Nickelodeon’s Making Fiends. In addition to working as an animator and character designer, Aglaia also illustrates and paints. She currently teaches at, The Art Institute of California, Hollywood.
Charles daCosta is an Australian-based animator and academic. He has taught extensively across the globe and has been instrumental in the design of animation training programs in Europe, West Africa and USA.
He was an Animation History professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design [SCAD] in Georgia. Previously he taught Animation at the University of Westminster [UK], Media and Cultural Studies at the Kingston University [UK] and University College of the Creative Arts [UK], and Animation Studies at Morley College and the London Center of Samford University, Birmingham, Ala. He has been a visiting lecturer at the National Film and Television Institute [NAFTI] here in Ghana, led workshops at the Nigeria Television Authority’s TV College and in elementary schools in Georgia, USA.
He also served as New Media Manager at the University of Reading in England, where he introduced SAIL - the student access to independent learning program. Prior to that he was a Project Manager at the Centre for International Technology [CITE], a division of the European Commission's MEDIA initiative. In that position he coordinated the funding for postgraduate student placement and internships for media programs undertaken in universities across eight European universities. In addition, daCosta has worked as a freelance photographer for COMPIX, the Commonwealth Institute's picture library; as a cameraman and photographer for UNESCO in the South Pole.
He has written, published, presented, participated in, and coordinated several international conferences. Charles is currently the historian for the Society for Animation Studies [SAS]. He recently published a book titled, Framing Invisibility: Racial Stereotyping and Selective Positioning in Contemporary British Animation. Charles is also a musician, but above all he believes filmmaking is ultimately puppetry, and is passionate about stop-motion and all things animation.
Lars Deutsch
Emmy winner Lars Deutch went from heavy metal guitarist, to singer, to songwriter, to a Masters in classical composition, to international performances of his classical works, to lecturing in composition and audio production. As a result he has a unique sound for his film music, as well as a cutting-edge approach to audio post production. Lars has scored over one hundred fifty films that have collected over one hundred awards, and his songs are also in high demand. As an audio branding expert, he has created audio logos for a range of companies.
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