Mentors

Animate Bootcamp

Dean Lyon | Splinter Studios

Creative Technologist

Dean is a world-renowned visual effects creator and computer graphics innovator with 35+ years’ experience in collaborating with cutting edge directors, motion picture studios, production companies, post-production facilities and technology developers throughout the world. He is passionate about the creative use of technology to transform the art of visual storytelling and is regarded as a futurist by colleagues within the industry. Read more…

Brad Beckman | Distinctive Voices

Story Development

Brad Beckman currently teaches acting at Syracuse University and works internationally as a writing and narrative mentor. He is an award-winning playwright, a published writer and editor in prose and Drama Editor for the Stone Canoe Literary Journal.

Kevin Sharpley | Kijik Multimedia Productions

Producer/CEO

Kevin Sharpley is the president and CEO of Kijik Multimedia Inc. a full-service multi-media company with specialties in integrated, branded and convergent media and development of in-house projects. His range of work includes film, television, web, documentary, computer graphics, gaming, augmented and virtual reality, animation, metaverse, NFT, new media and more.

He has produced and directed projects including the documentary “Sove Nou” narrated by Danny Glover featuring Wycleff Jean, “Download for Good” narrated by David Lynch, wrote, produced and directed the multi-platform project “The Beach Chronicles”, which features Tommy Flanagan, Michael Chiklis and Daryl Hannah that debuted as an official selection of the Miami International Film Festival. In addition, the animated film “The Incredibly Short Life Of Peter Panties” has been accepted to many festivals including the Slamdance-Emergence Festival and has won six awards in its festival run. He is currently in post-production on a feature film he directed and co-produced “Deadly Night Out”.

Kevin Sharpley is a Sundance Institute fellow after having his documentary “Purvis Young, Young Purvis” selected for the Sundance Miami story development workshop which is currently in production. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami with a dual major in motion pictures and psychology in addition to an Associates of Arts degree from Miami Dade College and was inducted into the Miami Dade College Alumni Hall of Fame in 2014.

Joann Yarrow | Live Animation Studios

Executive Director

Joann Yarrow is a professional director and producer with over 35 years of experience collaborating with creative teams globally.  She specializes in story development across serval platforms, working in projects that connect with audiences around the world.  Navigating between film, animation and stage, Joann also mentors at ADA Animation in Nairobi, Kenya, and is the Director for Community Engagement and Education at Syracuse Stage in New York.

Lamar Hawkins | MyGosh

EP/Co-Founder

30 years advertising production: live-action, CGI & 2D animation, TV, digital & online content, sound, music… Co-founder of MYGOSH, he brings an international network of creative & technical talent. He has lead projects in Africa, USA, Canada & across Europe.

Esther Banegas Gatica | Live Animation Studios

Mentor

Esther is Honduran and proud; Her theatre studies began at CC-Artes (Honduras). Then at Teatro Prometeo’s Conservatory at Miami Dade College. There, she performed at the International Hispanic Theatre Festival and Miami Book Fair. Esther received her BFA from Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma. There she worked with the non-profit children’s theatre Clark Youth Theatre. She translates plays from English to Spanish and vice versa. Recently she taught Rasaboxes Jr. for Syracuse Stage in NY. As a playwright and dramaturg, Esther has written/directed several of her own one-act plays. She obtained her Masters of Fine Arts in Playwriting/Screenwriting at the University of California, Riverside- where she collaborated with the Latinx Play Project and the Gluck Foundation.