Douglas Wood is an American author, writer, actor, creative executive, director, producer and professor. He has been a VP of Animation Development and Production for Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment, Turner Pictures, Warner Bros. and Universal. [1]
Wood was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he acted in productions at The Next Theatre Company, The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, The Forum Theatre and The Second City [2] among others. He studied acting at Illinois State University and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Wood formed a comedy duo with Cheryl Rhoads entitled The Fine Line, playing comedy clubs and theaters in Chicago and later L.A., including The Improv and The Comedy Store. [3] The Fine Line's vignettes on human relationships, entitled "An Evening with the Fine Line", ran for nine months in Chicago at the Ruth Page Theater. Upon arriving in L.A., Wood and Rhoads were spotted and signed by the William Morris Agency and they soon performed (twice) on The Merv Griffin Show . [4] This led to Wood becoming a series regular and staff writer on the NBC variety series, The Motown Revue Starring Smokey Robinson.
Wood has worked as the creative executive for the Annie award winning films The Iron Giant and Cats Don't Dance as well as We're Back! and Balto. [4] He also served as the creative executive for the Emmy Award winning TV series Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs . [5] Wood has created two animated television series: Little Einsteins for Disney and Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies for National Geographic (for which he also authored the children's book, When Mama Mirabelle Comes Home.) [6]
In addition to his work for Disney, he has written television shows for children at Apple TV+ where he also served as Showrunner/Executive Producer on Duck & Goose, Nickelodeon, Discovery Kids, the BBC, Fremantle Media, Netflix, Cirque du Soleil, Mattel, DHX and more. [7] Molly of Denali, a PBS series on which Wood was Story Editor, won a Peabody Award. [8]
In 2011, Wood directed, produced (with Jennifer Clymer) and wrote (with Maureen Kelly) live-action short, Hi, Lillian which starred veteran actor, Pat Crawford Brown, an improv student of Wood's at the MPTV Fund. The film won the Audience Award for Best Short at three film festivals: Dances With Films '15, Prescott Film Festival 2012, and the 12th Annual Valley Film Festival. Wood also won an award for Best Emerging Filmmaker at the Prescott Film Festival. Hi, Lillian was an Official Selection at the AWEsome Film Festival in San Jose, CA, the Reel Recovery Festivals in L.A., NY, American Independent Film Festival, the Legacy Film Festival in San Francisco and the Seoul International Senior Film Festival in Seoul, Korea.
In 2013 Wood wrote, directed and executive produced the short film Entanglement, which received a Best Short Award at the Independent Film Quarterly Film Festival in 2014. The film also won an Award of Merit from the Best Shorts Competition, 2014 and was an Official Selection at the Dances With Films Festival in Hollywood and the First Glance Festival - L.A.
In 2020, Wood authored the novel, Ladies of the Canyon, a psychological thriller, published by Prospective Press.
At the Motion Picture and Television Fund, Wood volunteered his services for ten years instructing senior citizens on the craft of Improvisation. He also teaches Improvisation in the Theatre department at the University of New Mexico.
Duck & Goose (Showrunner/Executive Producer)
Author of psychological thriller, Ladies of the Canyon
During his time as an executive at Amblin, Wood helped develop and was the creative executive for the following works: [3]
Wood worked on the following animations: [3]
Wood was involved with the following projects: [3]
Wood was involved with the following projects for National Geographic: [3]
Winner of Annie Award, Best Preschool Series; Winner of thirteen Emmy Awards including Outstanding Preschool Children's Animated Series.
The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound synchronized cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts started to lose popularity to the newer medium of television. Animated media from after the golden age, especially on television, were produced on cheaper budgets and with more limited techniques between the 1960s and 1980s.
Modern animation in the United States from the late 1980s to 2004 is frequently referred to as the renaissance age of American animation. During this period, many large American entertainment companies reformed and reinvigorated their animation departments, following the dark age, and the United States had an influence on global and worldwide animation.
Tiny Toon Adventures is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger that was broadcast from September 14, 1990, to December 6, 1992. It was the first animated series produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Animation. The show follows the adventures of a group of young cartoon characters who attend Acme Looniversity to become the next generation of characters from the Looney Tunes series.
Warner Bros. Animation Inc. is an American animation studio which is part of the Warner Bros. Television Studios, a division of Warner Bros., which is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery and serves as the animation division and label of Warner Bros.
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene from its first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928). Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney after the closure of Laugh-O-Gram Studio, it is the oldest-running animation studio in the world. It is currently organized as a division of Walt Disney Studios and is headquartered at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California. Since its foundation, the studio has produced 62 feature films, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Wish (2023), and hundreds of short films.
Balto is a 1995 animated adventure film directed by Simon Wells, produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is loosely based on the true story of the eponymous dog who helped save children infected with diphtheria in the 1925 serum run to Nome. The film stars the voices of Kevin Bacon, Bridget Fonda, Phil Collins, and Bob Hoskins. Though primarily an animated film, it uses a live-action framing device that takes place in New York City's Central Park and features Miriam Margolyes as an older version of one of the children. This was the third and final film to be produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, before the studio's closure in 1997.
Sherri Lynn Stoner is an American actress, animator, and writer. She also voiced Slappy Squirrel in the children's television series Animaniacs and for one short segment in its revival.
Zachary Thomas Moncrief is an American artist, producer, director, and writer in the animation industry. He's currently a co-executive producer on Netflix's pre-school series Ghee Happy. His titles have included supervising producer, writer, supervising director, storyboard artist, designer, and songwriter. In 2009, an episode from Phineas and Ferb, which he directed entitled "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein", received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the category for Outstanding Special Class Short-format Animated Programs.
Tom Ruegger is an American animator and songwriter. Ruegger is known for his association with Disney Television Animation and Warner Bros. Animation. He also created Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and Histeria!.
John Ryan Kinney was an American animator, director and producer of animated shorts. Kinney is the older brother of fellow Disney animator Dick Kinney.
Donald Paul Hahn is an American film producer who is credited with producing some of the most successful animated films in recent history, including Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.
Roger S. H. Schulman is an American screenwriter and film producer. He co-wrote the animated feature Shrek, for which he won the British Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing.
James Patton "Jack" King was an American animator and short film director best known for his work at Walt Disney Productions.
Animaniacs is an American animated comedy musical television series created by Tom Ruegger for Fox's Fox Kids block in 1993, before moving to The WB in 1995, as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block, until the series ended on November 14, 1998. It is the second animated series produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Animation, after Tiny Toon Adventures. It initially ran a total of 99 episodes, along with a feature-length film, Wakko's Wish. Reruns later aired on Cartoon Network from 1997 to 2001, Nickelodeon from 2001 to 2003, Nicktoons from 2003 to 2005, and Discovery Family from 2012 to 2014.
Ben Hibon is a Swiss animation director. Hibon was born in Geneva, Switzerland, where he completed studies in Fine Art. He moved to London in 1996 to study Graphic Design at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, followed by a master's degree at the same school.
Triggerfish is a computer animation film studio based in Cape Town, South Africa and Galway, Ireland. The studio is best known for its animated feature films Adventures in Zambezia (2012), Khumba (2013), and Seal Team (2021), as well as the work they have done on television specials created for UK producers Magic Light Pictures. In 2016, Stick Man was awarded the Cristal for best TV production at the Annecy International Animation Festival. In 2017, Revolting Rhymes again won the Cristal for best TV production at the Annecy Festival, and was nominated for the Best Short Film (Animated) Oscar at the 2018 Academy Awards. In 2019, Netflix announced that Triggerfish would produce its first African animated TV series. In 2020, Zog won the International Emmy for Best Kids Animation. In 2021, The Snail and The Whale won Best Special Production at The Annie Awards, while Triggerfish received the Mifa Animation Industry Award at Annecy for "the pioneering role that the company has played in animation in South Africa, and Africa most widely.” In 2022, their third film, Seal Team, made the Netflix Top 10 Films global list for its launch week.
Elena F. Engel is a producer/director of film, video, radio, and audio for The Walt Disney Company, Amblin Entertainment, Simon & Schuster, UNICEF, Western Publishing Company, National Public Radio, Warner Bros., Sesame Street, and the Disney Channel.
Events in 1953 in animation.
Events in 1941 in animation.
Events in 1935 in animation.