Baobab Studios adds top creative talent in film and games
Skwigly
Image via Baobab Studios
Building on its unique position at the intersection of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, Baobab Studios has announced its latest new key hires across both animation and gaming.
Today’s news underscores the studio’s momentum on the heels of winning nine Emmy® Awards in storytelling including Best Interactive Media for Invasion!, Asteroids!, Crow: The Legend, and Baba Yaga. Disney Branded Television recently announced teaming up with Baobab to create The Witchverse, an animated anthology series based on Baobab’s three x Emmy-winning short film and VR experience, Baba Yaga, for Disney+.
Baobab’s most recent release, Namoo, was acquired by Warner 150 earlier this year and is now streaming exclusively on HBO Max. Namoo won the 2022 Annie Award for Best Special Production and was named Best Animated Short from the 2022 Gold List Awards.
Since our start, Baobab has been at the intersection of Silicon Valley and Hollywood with a founding team that comes from gaming, animation and film. Our new talent will continue to build upon this position and accelerate us into new areas as we deliver on our mission of inspiring the world to dream.
-Maureen Fan, CEO and Co-founder of Baobab Studios
The new hires include:
- Oscar®-nominated for Opera, Erick Oh joins as Director. He wrote and directed Namoo, and is currently in development on his next project. He was previously an animator at Pixar Animation Studios and directed the television production PIG: The Dam Keeper Poems, which won the Cristal Award at Annecy Animation Festival in 2018.
- Jony Chandra comes in as Director. He spent 15 years at Blue Sky Studios in various creative leadership roles including Head of Story, Director in Development and Story Artist on films ranging from Peanuts the Movie and the Oscar®-nominated Ferdinand to both of the Ice Age and Rio film franchises.
- Brian Tinsman and Michael McCormick as Games Creative Directors will accelerate game development. Brian brings 18 years of experience as a lead game designer with credits on more than 50 shipped titles, including Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and Dungeons & Dragons, as well as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Transformers, Major League Baseball, Marvel, FarmVille, and Zynga Poker. He has also spent the past five years working in the new fields of blockchain tokenomics and NFT gaming.
- Michael is lending his talent on Baobab’s next multi-player game. His previous roles include Creative Director of Maxis, where he worked on games including The Sims franchise and Sim City. He also led design on games such as Telltale’s Walking Dead, Minecraft and Zynga’s Cityville.
- With over 15 years of experience Hayley Porter joins as Director of Marketing. Hayley has spent most of her career running marketing and PR campaigns for award-winning animation studios, including Aardman Animations. Hayley has extensive international experience with teams in London, South Africa and Los Angeles and currently serves on the PR Committee for Women In Animation.
See more of the work of Baobab Studios at baobabstudios.com