Michael Surrey

Michael Surrey

in

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

in

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).