The Toon Room Podcast

For this episode, I sat down with Adam Jeffcoat — award-winning animation director and creator — to talk about an unconventional journey into animation, building original IP, and learning the hard way how the industry really works.

But this conversation isn’t just about animation. It’s about finding your own path. About resilience. And about learning to see the industry from the other side of the table.

We talk about:

✨ From Spielberg to Animation

Adam didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming an animator. He wanted to make films. A chance discovery of Sheridan College eventually led him to animation — and showed him that filmmaking could take a very different form.

🎬 Breaking Out of the System

After an early job at Electronic Arts left him frustrated by the way things were being done, Adam decided to take the risk of building his own path — eventually co-founding a studio with his Sheridan colleague Jim.

🚧 The Long Road to Original IP

Years of freelance and service work eventually led Adam and his collaborators back to what they really wanted: telling their own stories and developing their own ideas. But getting original projects made proved considerably harder than they expected.

💡 Learning to Pitch the Business

Adam talks candidly about the moment he realised that a great creative idea isn't necessarily enough. Understanding what an executive needs, what makes a project commercially viable, and how to create emotional buy-in can be just as important as the creative itself.

🏆 The Emmy That Changed Everything

After an exhausting cycle of pitching, Nico & the Sword of Light took an unexpected turn — winning an Emmy after Adam and his team entered the pilot themselves. The award eventually helped lead to Amazon greenlighting the series.

🧠 Resilience When the Answer Is “No”

Adam reflects on the rollercoaster of trying to get original work made — and why it's so easy, especially in the current industry climate, to become discouraged or question whether you should continue at all.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com

For this episode, I sat down with Eric Calderon — animation producer, development executive, and founder of Surviving Animation. This conversation goes deep into the winding, unexpected path into animation, the power of clarity in storytelling, how community can keep people afloat, and what it means to learn and teach at the same time in a changing industry.

We talk about:

✨ Early Obsessions

Eric looks back on the childhood mix that shaped him — Schoolhouse Rock, Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Transformers, G.I. Joe, and the early wave of Japanese animation that sparked a lifelong love of the medium.

🎬 From Business Major to Animation Executive

He shares how he didn’t go to art school, but instead started in business, drifted through different paths, and eventually found his way into animation through MTV, script reading, and development.

📼 Learning on the Job at MTV

Eric talks about reading pitches, developing projects, and producing pilots during the height of MTV’s creative influence — a crash course in how stories, brands, and networks really work.

🧠 The Importance of Clarity

A major theme of the episode is the value of sharp, clear storytelling. Eric explains why original ideas need focus, why “putting everything in” usually weakens a project, and why simplicity often wins.

🌍 From the West to Japan

He also reflects on his years working in Japan with Studio Gonzo, where he had to unlearn old assumptions and adapt to an entirely different creative and production culture.

👥 Community Building & Surviving Animation

We dive into why Eric started Surviving Animation, how it has grown into a space for honest conversations about the industry, and why building community is becoming essential for staying informed, connected, and sane.

📚 Learning and Teaching at the Same Time

Eric talks about the dynamic of sharing knowledge while still figuring things out himself — mentoring, consulting, and learning from creators at every level, and why that mutual exchange is one of the healthiest ways to move the industry forward.

This episode is a candid, wide-ranging conversation about the business of animation, the craft of development, community as a survival tool, and the lessons that come from building a career across very different parts of the industry.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com

For this episode, I sat down with Elliot Blake — writer, producer, and longtime animation creative whose career spans story development, production, and the realities of building projects from the ground up. 

We talk about:

✨ The Story That Started It All

Elliot shares how a childhood shaped by Star Wars, comic books, and handmade stories led him toward storytelling long before animation entered the picture.

🎬 Finding His Way Into Animation

He opens up about how he didn’t set out to work in animation, but gradually found his home in the industry after starting out in live action, sound post, and production.

🛠️ Learning the Craft the Hard Way

Elliot reflects on the years that taught him the mechanics of how a show is actually made, and how that knowledge still applies today.

🎭 You never know where the great idea comes from

A big theme in the episode is the importance of listening, collaboration, and creative leadership — especially when working with directors, storyboard artists, and teams full of strong ideas.

🌍 New Paths Into the Industry

We also get into how the business has changed, from Turner and GameTap to Amazon Studios and beyond.

📺 Building for the Audience You Actually Have

Elliot shares a clear-eyed view of modern development: creators need to think about fandom, distribution, and audience-building earlier than ever, especially if they want their work to stand out.

🎯 The Reality of Making It Work

From feature-length animatics to independent projects and crowdfunding-era workflows, this episode digs into the practical side of getting ideas off the page and into the world.

This is a thoughtful, candid conversation about storytelling, systems, audiences, and the long game of making animation work in a fast-changing industry.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com

For this episode, I sat down with Rich Staplehurst — actor-turned-creator, storyteller, and the mind behind projects like Rupert Regis & His Magical Bookshop, Chuck Loris, and Flo and Otto. 

We talk about:

✨ From Performance to Creation

Rich shares how a childhood shaped by entertainment, theatre, and storytelling eventually led him away from acting and toward writing and creating his own worlds.

📚 The Spark of an Idea

From writing personalised stories during lockdown to building characters out of grief and memory, Rich reflects on how some of his strongest ideas came from very personal places.

🤝 The Power of Collaboration

He explains why the best creative moments often happen at the beginning — when a character, a designer, and a story click into place — and why collaboration is what brings an idea fully to life.

🎢 The High and the Fatigue

We talk about the addictive rush of early development, but also the fatigue that can come from living too long with your own idea and trying to carry it alone.

🧠 Human Stories vs. Algorithm Thinking

Rich opens up about the tension between authentic storytelling and the increasingly data-driven, algorithm-led side of the industry, and why he still believes in the emotional value of stories built with care.

🌱 Building a Slate, Not Just a Show

From Moonbug to his own projects, Rich shares how he’s thinking about original IP, adapted books, and creating work that can stand apart in a crowded market.

🌍 What Comes Next

We also get into the bigger question of where the industry is heading, what kinds of stories will matter, and how both established and emerging talent can find space in what comes next.

This episode is a candid, thoughtful look at the realities of making original work in animation today — the joy, the frustration, the business, and the human heart underneath it all.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com

For this episode, I sat down with Rich Magallanes — animation executive, storyteller, and longtime industry leader with deep experience across production, development, and network leadership. This conversation is as much about the person as it is about the job: how he got into animation, what shaped him, and why his guiding mantra has always been, “When the world’s closing doors on you, don’t say why me — say it’s on me.”

We talk about:

✨ A Life Shaped by Instability

Rich opens up about growing up in a family of five boys, navigating divorce, poverty, constant moves, and the feeling of having to figure things out on his own from a very young age.

🎬 Falling Into Animation

He shares how he didn’t set out to become an animation executive, but gradually found his way into the industry through a mix of writing, production, live-action work, and eventually Nickelodeon.

📺 The Nick Years

Rich reflects on rising through the ranks at Nickelodeon during the early years of SpongeBob, Fairly OddParents, Teenage Robot, and ChalkZone, and how he learned to work with creators, solve problems, and keep productions moving.

🤝 Leading Creatives Without Losing the Creative

We talk about what it means to manage passionate teams, translate network notes across different creative personalities, and keep everyone aligned without losing the fun or the heart of the work.

💥 When the Work Stops Feeling Fun

Rich opens up about reaching a point where the executive side of the job started to feel less creative and more like damage control — and what it meant to walk away when the role no longer felt right.

🛤️ The Power of Staying Open

After leaving Nickelodeon, Rich describes how staying available, meeting people, and saying yes led to new opportunities.

🧠 “It’s On Me”

The episode becomes especially personal as Rich traces how the loss, instability, and constant change of childhood shaped his mindset, his resilience, and his determination to keep moving forward no matter what.

This is a candid, deeply human conversation about leadership, survival, creativity, and the reality of building a career in animation when life doesn’t come with a roadmap.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com

For this episode, I sat down with Cory Williams — the one man powerhouse behind Silly Crocodile, early internet creator and one of the first people to turn YouTube into a full-time path — long before anyone really knew what that meant.

But this conversation isn’t just about platforms or success. It’s about instinct. About believing in yourself and the originality of your own voice. 

We talk about:

✨ Creating Your Own Path

Cory was making videos before “content creator” was even a thing — driven more by curiosity and connection than any clear outcome.

🎬 Following the Shift

From MySpace to YouTube, Cory talks about recognizing a change in how people connect — and having the courage to move with it. 

🤝 Building Real Connection

At the heart of it all is people. This isn’t about platforms — it’s about creating something honest enough that people resonate with it.

💡 Listening to Your Instincts

Before there were rules or roadmaps, Cory relied on instinct — paying attention to what felt right, even when it didn’t make logical sense, like turning down a 5 million dollar offer. 

This episode is about being human, about trusting yourself, staying open, and keeping track of why you do what you do.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com

For this episode, I sat down with Michael Shawn Lewis — storyteller, director, producer, and longtime creative force whose path runs from classical music and Broadway to animation, preschool television, and beyond.

But this conversation isn’t just about credits. It’s about reinvention. About finding your own voice. And about what happens when you stop chasing the path you thought you should want and start making the work that actually matters to you.

We talk about:

✨ Growing Up with Story

Raised on a farm in Tennessee, Michael shares how animals, solitude, and observation shaped his earliest sense of communication and storytelling.

🎭 From Opera to Broadway

He opens up about studying opera and conducting, then moving into musical theatre, performing in Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, and on Broadway for years before realizing he wanted something more.

💡 The “Now What?” Moment

After years in the grind of eight shows a week, and a major health scare that forced a hard reset, Michael reflects on the turning point that pushed him back toward his own creative voice.

🎬 Building Stories for Kids

From theatrical producing to founding the New York Children’s Theatre Festival, Michael talks about discovering how deeply he loves creating with and for children.

🐸 Working with The Jim Henson Company

He shares how his theater work led to collaborations with Henson, including projects like Splash and Bubbles, Word Party, Slumberkins, and Max & the Midknights.

🎨 Why Directing Matters

Michael explains why directing became such a personal passion — because it lets him get closer to the heartbeat of the story and help shape its voice from the inside.

🧵 Story as Responsibility

We also get into the bigger question of what stories are for, how they serve audiences, and why creators have to be responsible to the work rather than simply to their own ego.

This episode is a warm, thoughtful, and deeply human conversation about creativity, pivots, collaboration, and the lifelong work of finding the story that is truly yours.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com

For this episode, I sat down with Coco Nitta — music producer, tech founder at Kamik.ai — whose journey spans from the early days of the EDM renaissance in Los Angeles to building new tools at the intersection of AI and animation.

But this conversation isn’t just about technology. It’s about perspective. About possibility. And about how creative tools reshape who gets to tell stories.

We talk about:

✨ From Music to Machines

Coco didn’t come from animation. He built a career in music — producing, writing, and working with major artists — before finding himself pulled toward AI through a deep curiosity about creative technology and its future.

🎧 The First Wave of Democratization

Having lived through the transformation of the music industry — from gatekeepers to laptops — Coco draws direct parallels between the rise of digital audio tools and what’s now happening in visual storytelling.

🎬 The “Jurassic Park” Moment

Coco describes seeing diffusion models for the first time as a turning point — similar to when Steven Spielberg first saw CGI dinosaurs. A moment where you realize: everything is about to change.

🚀 Lowering the Barrier to Creation

AI isn’t just about efficiency — it’s about access. Coco explains how these tools allow creators to bring ideas to life without needing large teams, budgets, or traditional pipelines.

⚖️ Slop

With easier creation comes oversaturation. We talk about the rise of “slop,” but also why this isn’t new — and why strong ideas and human perspective still rise above the noise.

💡 Creative Control in the Age of AI

Rather than replacing artists, Coco’s approach focuses on empowering them — giving creators more control, faster iteration, and new ways to express what was previously locked in their heads.

This episode is a conversation about shifts — not just in technology, but in who gets to create, how stories are made, and what happens when the tools finally catch up with imagination.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com

For this episode, I sat down with Fraser MacLean — layout artist, animation historian, and author of Setting the Scene— whose career spans from Who Framed Roger Rabbit to Disney’s Tarzan and beyond.

But this conversation isn’t just about credits. It’s about craft. About perspective. And about protecting knowledge that risks being forgotten.

We talk about:

✨ The Myth of “2D”

Fraser challenges the idea that traditional animation is flat. From multiplane cameras to deep canvas innovations, he breaks down why classic hand-drawn animation is aggressively three-dimensional — and why that matters.

🎬 Why Layout Holds the Purse Strings

Layout isn’t decoration. It’s structural. It determines cost, efficiency, staging, depth, and emotional clarity. Fraser explains why removing layout from a pipeline isn’t saving money — it’s misunderstanding how films are actually built.

🎨 Falling in Love with Drawing

From growing up in Scotland to discovering Fantasia on the big screen, Fraser shares the formative moments that shaped his artistic path — including being told repeatedly at art school that his drawing was “outdated” and irrelevant.

🚪 Knocking on Disney’s Door

After being ignored by studios, Fraser physically tracked down Disney’s production office during Roger Rabbit, demanded a phone number, and ended up being hired because of the very life drawings his tutors dismissed.

💻 Technology Is a Tool — Not a Savior

From radar mechanics in WWII to the digital revolution in animation, Fraser reflects on how technology changes pipelines — but not the fundamentals of visual storytelling.

📚 Why He Wrote the Book

Setting the Scene isn’t nostalgia. It’s documentation. It’s about preserving knowledge of staging, perspective, and spatial storytelling before it disappears from modern pipelines.

This episode is a masterclass in thinking — about depth, about discipline, and about the invisible architecture behind great animation.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com

For this episode, I sat down with Justine Bannister — someone I’ve often described as the quiet connector of the animation world. A generous industry matchmaker, strategist, and long-time advocate for creative collaboration, Justine has spent decades helping projects and people find each other.

We talk about:

✨ Finding Your Way (Without a Master Plan)

Justine didn’t set out to work in animation. From European studies to journalism, distribution, Disney, and eventually launching her own consultancy — her path reflects what so many creative careers really look like: unexpected turns, curiosity, and timing.

🌍 Global Perspective

From the UK to France, Argentina to international markets, Justine shares how working across cultures shaped her understanding of storytelling, partnerships, and how this industry actually functions behind the scenes.

🤝 The Art of Connecting People

Some people instinctively see how projects and personalities align. Justine explains how decades of experience sharpened that instinct — and why relationships remain the real currency of animation.

🎬 Distribution, Development & the Bigger Picture

We dig into how projects move from idea to screen, what creators often underestimate about markets like Annecy or MIP, and why preparation and positioning matter just as much as passion.

💛 Creating Safe Spaces in a Noisy Industry

Justine reflects on why spaces like The Toon Room matter right now — places where conversations are honest, not performative, and where barriers to entry are lower than they’ve traditionally been.

This episode is a reminder that animation careers don’t follow straight lines — and that sometimes the most powerful role in the room isn’t the loudest one, but the one quietly connecting the dots.

🎧 Listen now — and if you want to join these conversations live, with animators and storytellers from around the world, come hang out with us inside The Toon Room:

👉 thetoonroom.com