Brad Lewis

Brad Lewis

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Brad recently produced the Oscar nominated “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” the critically acclaimed conclusion of the trilogy. Lewis also produced the animated film “Storks” and served as executive producer of “The Lego Batman Movie,” both from Warner Bros. Previously Lewis spent 10 years at Pixar, where he worked on a number of the studio’s film including “Ratatouille” (producer) and “Cars 2” (co-director, writer). He worked with Studio Ghibli on the acclaimed animated film “Ponyo,” as vocal director of the English cast. With the formation of DreamWorks SKG in 1994, Lewis was among the company’s first employees as a key executive at PDI/DreamWorks, and produced the studio’s inaugural animated feature, “ANTZ.”

In 2008, he was awarded by Producers Guild America with its PGA Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures for “Ratatouille,” which ultimately won the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature and a Golden Globe that same year. In addition, he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects for The Simpsons 3d Halloween episode in 1992, a Sports Emmy Award for design for ABC Monday Night Football, and is the recipient of two Clio Awards. ​

A native of San Mateo, CA, Lewis graduated from Fresno State University, where he studied Theatre Arts/Dance. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and the Producers Guild of America (PGA).

Michael Surrey

Michael Surrey

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Michael recently was a Story artist on the Oscar nominated “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” the critically acclaimed conclusion of the trilogy. Surrey, in his 10 years at DreamWorks, has also storyboarded on the studio’s film “Boss Baby” and multiple films in development, along with animating on the film “The Croods.” Previously, Surrey spent 18 years at Walt Disney Animation where he worked on a number of the studio’s films as a Supervising Animator including “Princess and the Frog,” “Home on the Range,” “Atlantis,” “Tarzan,” “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and “The Lion King.” He also contributed to other films as an animator and story artist including “Tangled” (animation/ story), “Aladdin,” and “Beauty and the Beast” (animation).

In 1995, he was nominated for an Annie Award for his work in animation on “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

A native of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Surrey, before beginning his animation career, was pursuing his BFA at New York Institute of Technology and is also a graduate from Sheridan College where he studied animation. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Karen Disher

Karen Disher

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Karen is a director and story artist with a wide range of experience in both tv and feature animation. She studied traditional 2D animation at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, then landed her dream job as a layout artist on MTV’s “Beavis and Butt-Head”. As part of the original creative team on the critically acclaimed spin-off “Daria”, she designed the main characters, directed episodes, then was promoted to Supervising Director. She oversaw the show for the majority of its run and directed the two “Daria” made-for-TV movies.

In 2002, Karen began her long career at Blue Sky Studios, where she was a story artist on every film from “Robots” on – including the Golden Globe-nominated “The Peanuts Movie”, the Academy Award-nominated “Ferdinand”, and “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”, where she provided the voice of Scratte. She was Head of Story on “Rio”, directed “Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas” (nominated for an Annie Award), and began production in 2018 as Co-Director on her original feature story, “Foster”.

Karen was a founding member of Blue Sky’s Senior Creative Trust and had a variety of original shorts and feature projects in development over the years. She’s excited to continue that spirit of creative collaboration and inventiveness at Spire. Karen is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Sharon Bridgeman

Sharon Bridgeman

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Prior to joining Spire Animation Studios, Sharon worked at Sony Animation in development. She also worked as a Story Artist at Dreamworks on many of their features including Kung Fu Panda 2, Boss Baby, and Abominable. In addition to working on features for Sony and Dreamworks, Sharon worked in TV for Warner Brothers and HBO’s Adult Animation Division, on such shows as Batman Beyond, Superman, and Spawn.

Before coming to the United States, Sharon started her animation career in her home town of Dublin, Ireland. There she worked for Fred Wolf Studios on The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This amazing experience fueled her desire to keep working in the field and learn as much as she could about this crazy and wacky animation world, and she hasn’t looked back since.

Sharon lives in Los Angeles with her husband, and dog Pookie. In her free time she loves to paint and be in nature, where she gets a lot of her inspiration.