VANCOUVER — Thunderbird Entertainment’s kids and family division, Atomic Cartoons, is expanding again with the opening of its third animation studio, this time in the Los Angeles – and that it already has its first project in production for an unnamed major global broadcaster.
The L.A. studio will be led by Matthew Berkowitz, chief creative officer of Thunderbird and Atomic Cartoons. Co-vice-presidents of Atomic Originals, Aaron Behl and Kristin Cummings, will also hold senior leadership roles at the L.A. studio.
“We are thrilled to expand our L.A. footprint with the opening of an animation studio to house our local showrunners, directors, writers, designers, storyboard artists and editorial teams. Similar to our studios in Vancouver and Ottawa, we plan to provide a supportive and creative environment for these tremendously talented individuals to achieve the best work of their careers,” says Berkowitz, in the news release. “With the ever-increasing industry demand for premium original content, the new studio is a stellar opportunity to work with the amazing animation talent base in L.A., and partner up with our award-winning creative teams in Canada.”
The L.A. animation studio will house the Atomic Originals team and primarily focus on pre- and post-production, including writing, directing, storyboarding, design, casting and recording, and editorial. By operating three studios across North America, Thunderbird says it is scaling up to expand both its owned-IP slate and its capacity to provide more to its partners like Netflix, Disney, NBCUniversal, PBS, Lego and Spin Master.
Thunderbird’s second animation studio, Atomic Ottawa, opened its doors 15 months ago and has grown from a team of 14 animators at its initial launch to 90 animators today, the release says.
Atomic Cartoons now has capacity for 880 crew members across its three facilities, Thunderbird says. Atomic Cartoons’ existing L.A. offices will be integrated into the new studio facility to create a full-fledged production hub.
