GUEST SPEAKERS | Phoenix Animation Ex

GUEST SPEARKERS & EXHIBITERS

Below this page is the list of guest speakers for this year's Phoenix Animation Expo. From exhibitors to presenters and more, this list will continue to grow as we approach the event. please be sure to check back to this page often for updates!

James Lopez

James Lopez is a veteran Disney animator who has been working as a professional in the animation industry for 30 years.

Michael Cedeno

Michael Cedeno is an 2D animator based in Southern California.
He has worked extensively as a character animator and character
designer for Disney Feature Animation.

Michael Cedeno is known for Oliver & Company (1988), Hercules (1997) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001).

Mike Mattesi

Mike Mattesi worked at Disney Feature Animation and Consumer Products,
Marvel Comics, Electronic Arts, Microsoft to name a few. He is best known as the creator of the FORCE Drawing Approach.

Joshua Gridley

Joshua Gridley Worked on Marvel movies and games As a Pre-Vis Artist, Senior Cinematics Animator and Currently a Layout artist for Paramount Animation.

Zach Heffelfinger

Zach Heffelfinger is known for SpongeBob SquarePants (1999, Alpha Betas (2021) and Cat Burglar (2022). Zach is Storyboard Revisionist on KAMP KORAL at Nickelodeon Animation

Alex Ferreira Simoes

Senior Animator at Riot Games and
Mentor/Founder at Animation Flow

Nataliia Alekseieva

Animator at Blizzard Entertainment
including Disney and Netflix

Hi! My name is Nataliia Alekseieva, and I love animating! I’ve worked on projects with the Blizzard Cinematic team, Disney's "Wish," Sony's "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," and "The Sea Beast." I've also supervised animation on some Ukrainian Featured films including Animation Direction on Animagrad's "Mavka and the Forest Song". I'm super excited to share my knowledge with all of you!

Brendan Russert

Brendan is an Animator at Riot Games and Pre-Vis artist for Marvel and Star Wars with The Third Floor.

I'm Brendan. I'm from Venezuela. Riot Games is my current home, I work on VALORANT doing first person animation. But, I've been everywhere and done everything; from motion graphics to mobile game animations at DisneyInteractive. My name on the credits of published titles on the Nintendo Switch and quite a few Pre-Vis titles on my IMDB page for Marvel and Star Wars with The Third Floor. I was even a professional clown!

If you see me at a conference come say hi!

Yula Wojcik

Yula Wojcik, writer, art director, and producer specializing in both 2D and 3D animation. Her work has been featured on platforms such as Netflix and Disney+. She has also contributed to projects acquired by record labels. In addition to #animation, Yula has experience in TV broadcasting services.

Kaitrin Snodgrass

Kaitrin Snodgrass is a storyboard artist and revisionist who has worked on Projects from My Little Pony to Invincible. She is known for sharing educational content about the animation industry on TikTok. Kaitrin also teaches storyboarding through Projectcity.TV

Jordyn Curley

With over 12 years of experience in the animation industry, Jordyn Curley is known for bringing creative visions to life. She currently leads three major projects, including "Tuttle Twins" (Season 4), an upcoming YouTube series launching in October 2024, and "Kelly and Friends." As the owner of Sketch2Screen, she connects animation professionals across the U.S., fostering growth and collaboration. She has also led the SIGGRAPH New England Chapter and the Boston AAUGA.

Jordan Burk

Jordan Burk is an author on a mission to make the world kinder,
one fun story at a time. Inspired by his Uncle Kelly, who had Down syndrome,
Jordan created the *Kelly & Kelso* series to celebrate
the joy in our differences and the humanity that connects us all.

Anthony Gardea

Anthony Gardea is a professional animator who specializes in frame-by-frame animation. His production credit includes Adult Swim’s Tigtone, National Geographic’s Cosmos, and Netflix’s Midnight Gospel, to name a few. He started Nominous Animation where he creates his own personal content like World Destroyer and Bunny and Choops.

Anthony Rollins

Anthony is a Storyboard Artist at Bento Box Entertainment &
2d Animator at Warner Bros. Anthony worked on
BoJack Horseman, Krapopolis, Good Times and Velma

Leonardo Beltran

2d animator, Founder of Docs Animation
and Co Director with Wildgoat Animation

Christopher Caliendo

Christopher Caliendo is a composer, world music guitarist, conductor, and publisher whose music resonates globally with film studios, philharmonics, chamber societies, the Vatican, the U.S. Military, political figures, celebrities, and the Library of Congress. He made Hollywood history as the first composer to re-score a major motion picture, "Major Dundee" by SONY Pictures, praised by The New York Times for its "...vastly improved orchestral score." Caliendo is also the first Hollywood composer to win the Heritage Award two years in a row for his work with 20th Century Fox.

Prince Smith and Lamont Pounds

Adventurous minds is As a remote production company, that focus on creating meaningful storytelling through game cinematics, animated television programming, and feature films.

Mariana Calegari

Mariana Calegari is a Brazilian-Italian composer for visual media based in Los Angeles. In 2021, she was nominated for the European Talent Competition Award, and in 2023, she was nominated for Best Score - Short Film Animated for "Wing It!" at the Hollywood Music In Media Awards. Her graduate education includes a master's degree in music for video games from Santa Cecilia Conservatory in 2018 and a master's degree in film scoring from Saint Louis College in 2019. She was awarded a mentoring program in Los Angeles in 2020, where she assisted Catherine Joy, composer and CEO of Joy Music House. Mariana has written scores for several projects, and as an orchestrator, she has contributed to the score production of numerous high-profile productions, including those for Amazon, Netflix, and HBO.

Ricardo Jimenez

2d/3D animator at DWG, Founder of RJ Animation,
Networking group - Phoenix az animation meetup and
Phoenix animation expo

Janelle Okumura

Janelle is a character designer, vis dev artist, and illustrator.
After years of work in the non-art world,
Janelle decided to make a move into the animation world.

Open Pixel Studios

Kathryn Taccone (she/hers), Co-Founder at Open Pixel Studios

Will Colón (he/his), Co-Founder at Open Pixel Studios

William Cruz

William Cruz and his son, Liam, share a deep bond over their love for cartoons. As a proud father and cartoonist, William has always cherished the time they spend drawing together, discovering how art can bring them closer and help them appreciate each other’s talents. On March 29, 2017, their journey began when Liam said, "Dad, I am bored, let’s draw together," and from that moment, Boonoonoonooz was born.

In 2022, William took his passion further by diving into 2D animation, and he is now working on bringing the Boonoonoonooz to the world.

BL BOLI

Bo Li is an award-winning sound artist whose work as an audio director has contributed to prestigious accolades, including the Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards for Animation and Best Film Awards at Oscar-qualifying festivals. As a sound designer, he has collaborated with THEA Award-winning companies, creating immersive soundscapes for the world’s largest aquarium and its 360-degree full-immersion theater. As a Clinical Assistant Professor at Arizona State University, Bo is at the forefront of innovation in audio experiences, creatively implementing AI and other new technologies into the workflow.

Adam D. Bullock

Adam is a Voice Over Talent and Coach. Voiced for Cartoon Network
“Garbage Boy and Trash Can”

Taylor Wellman

Taylor is Co-Owner of Financial Potion and Specializes in
Video Production - Editing - Live Streaming - Social Media Optimization & Training

GUEST SPEARKERS & EXHIBITERS

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