BIO
From a young age I felt that I was not destined to wear a tie in a 9 to 5 world. Boy, was I right.
I began drawing gag cartoons when I was around eight. I began acting in fourth grade. I didn't create any films until I got to USC Cinema, but I soon made up for lost time.
I was born in New York City and grew up primarily on the Jersey shore. There were several rock bands in the area when I was in high school. I was the drummer in one of them. Not Bruce's, unfortunately.
Eventually I would cross the Delaware heading west for Hollywood where I graduated from USC Cinema. All my classmates became kings of horror. I went straight to Sesame Street.
Even before I graduated John Carpenter cast me in his first film, Dark Star. It opened the same year I created the original San Diego Chicken as an animated TV commercial for a radio station.
Shortly thereafter, underground cartoonist Vaughn Bode died and I wound up taking over the live performance of his work, known as Bode's Cartoon Concert.
This brought me up to the San Francisco Bay Area where I would eventually spend years working for Korty Films/Lucasfilm as Supervising Animator and Sequence Director on the feature Twice Upon A Time.
When it was over I began screenwriting in earnest. My first short film The Wizard of No, won a Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival...and I was on my way. Subsequent educational films, including the Sooper Puppy and What Tadoo series, garnered numerous awards including over half a dozen CINE Gold Eagles.
As a freelance Creative Director I have worked for Pixar and Disney as well as corporate clients including Apple, IBM, Electronic Arts, Levi-Strauss, Sega and Wells Fargo.
I wrote the screenplay for Wild Brain's animated Hubert's Brain which won the Annie Award for Best Short in 2001.
I was head writer and puppet co-star in the PBS Special Kids, Cash & Common Sense, winner of three Emmy's including Best Children's Program.
My cartoons have appeared in magazines, books, calendars, web sites, and innumerable napkins...some of which being transformed in business cards, albeit to my surprise.
I have done graphic recording with Grove International, MG Taylor and the knOwhere Store.
My puppetry has included television series, educational films, corporate videos, cabarets and even radio. Yes, puppetry on the radio.
In recent years I've taken to writing skits that CEOs and other corporate execs perform, much to the amusement of their colleagues. Along the way I have mutilated the memories of many great films and broadway shows.
With more feature scripts, books, comics, novelty products, comic strips, and other tricks up my sleeve it is not likely that boredom will set in.
And for special occasions...yes, I will occasionally wear a tie.