Contributors
David B. Levy: ASIFA-East President
David B. Levy is an award-winning independent filmmaker and animation director for Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues, the Noggin Channel’s Pinky Dinky Doo, and Cartoon Network’s Assy McGee. His animation has been seen on Saturday Night Live and HBO. He has lectured and taught at Parsons School of Design, School of Visual Arts, NYU, and Pratt, and is president of the New York chapter of Association International du Film d’Animation (ASIFA.) Levy’s book, Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive (Allworth Press, 2006) is about to go into a third print run. Levy is currently writing a second book for Allworth Press. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. http://animondays.blogspot.com/
Dayna Gonzalez: Events Blogger and Blog Editor
Dayna Gonzalez is an award-winning animator with over a decade of experience as a Lead Character Animator for a variety of broadcast, film, and web productions. Dayna holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a major in film/animation, and a minor in Sociology. In 2008, she completed a Certificate Program in Web Design at SUNY/FIT in the interest of exploring animation and interactive web design. 2009 saw the development of her first flash game featuring Batman with her team Uppercut Animation. She writes an animation industry blog as a Pavaline Filmmaker’s Network Advisor. In her spare time, she enjoys salsa dancing, exploring new haunts in NYC, and tending to her small army of plants. http://daynamation.com
Richard Gorey: Features Blogger
Richard Gorey is a freelance animator and writer, author and illustrator of the novel The Great Rabbit Rip-off. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Richard spent the bulk of his professional career in public relations at Young & Rubicam, writing and designing for such clients as Chess King, Kraft Foods, Philip Morris, The Gap and Citigroup. He teaches animation and screenwriting in New York.
Elliot Cowan: Community Blogger
Elliot Cowan sold his house, gave his dog to his parents, and moved to London after 10 years of writing and directing television commercials in Tasmania. Now he works on animated movies, illustrations for other people and art pieces for himself. The short films based on his characters, Boxhead and Roundhead, have played to great acclaim at film festivals all over the world. He has abandoned London for the Big Apple and the love of a good woman. Pictures and animation can be found at www.elliotelliotelliot.com.
Linda Beck: ASIFA-East Membership Secretary
Linda Beck is the ASIFA East Membership Secretary and Communications Officer. She works at Nickelodeon as a production manager and has a bunny, cat, and husband. http://www.lindabeck.net/ asifaeastsecretary@gmail.com
Justin Simonich
Justin took an early liking to art, which he expressed by drawing all over the walls of his parents’ house. He pursued his love of art further by studying at some big fancy colleges all over the world. He now teaches at a fancy college in Brooklyn, NY as well as working for studios all over the city. Justin continues to create short films in his spare time as well as beautiful works of art. To see his work go to www.justinsimonich.com.
Emmett Goodman
Emmett Goodman comes from Chicago, London, Cleveland, and now, New York. A graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, Emmett has already made two short films, a few experiments, and a music video. He has also worked for Augenblick Animation, London Squared, and Charged! to name a few places. Emmett tends to lose himself in animation and music, as well as writing and movies. He currently lives in Park Slope in Brooklyn. For more on Emmett, check out his blogs: doubleben.blogspot.com (writing) and twobenswamp.blogspot.com (drawing), as well as his website emmettgoodman.com.
Katie Cropper
Katie Cropper is not an award winning animator but she sure is a winner. Katie is a recent grad of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She works with Debra Solomon on Debra’s most recent independent film to air on HBO. She currently lives in Queens with her very old dog and very young niece. www.katiecropper.com
Caresse Singh
Caresse Singh is a native Brooklynite, ballerina-turned-animator. She loves video games, food and being an aunt. A recent graduate of the School of Visual Arts, she has worked on projects for Little Airplane Productions and StretchFilms Inc. as well as in the graphic design department of Sony BMG and as an image retoucher for S.V.A’s digital archive. Caresse is currently the curator of the Ocean Beach Society Museum and is working on an independent animated film. You can check out her website at: caressesingh.com and/or her blog at: caressesingh.blogspot.com.
