Timothy Bjorklund, Director at Kavaleer pictured at Kavaleer offices in the Digital Hub, Dublin
Kavaleer Productions announced the appointment of Timothy Björklund as Director of their Dublin based studios. In a career that has spanned over two decades, Timothy has worked for some of Hollywood’s biggest and brightest names in animation and film production. Björklund, a native of San Francisco, began drawing cartoons the day he was given his first box of crayons. Commenting on why he decided to become a professional animator, Tim said:
‘I saw my first Betty Boop cartoon when I was 16 and thought it was the most fantastic thing my eyeballs had ever looked at. I knew I had to make cartoons after that.’
Björklund, a two-time Emmy award winner (Outstanding Animation Category) for his work on Disney’s hit TV series, Teachers Pet, trained in Animation and Film Graphics at California Institute of the Arts before getting his first job in 1984 as an Assistant Animator with Colossal Pictures. Four years later he was directing. Fast forward to 2011 where he directed the Nickelodeon Jr. series, Olivia, at Brown Bag Films-there Tim met future Kavaleer Producer Jackie Leonard who suggested he re-cross the pond and join the team. Björklund said:
‘When Jackie told me about this very cool new project we are working on, which I can’t mention by the way, and I saw the artwork, I jumped at it. The artists at Kavaleer are very talented and they have built an international reputation in the industry as being one of the most savvy and talented studios on the block. Here at Kavaleer there’s a real culture of creativity and fun, everybody has a great sense of wit. I hear a lot of laughter every day, which is nice.’
Speaking about his appointment, Björklund, true to the culture of ‘fun and wit’ at the Kavaleer studios stated:
‘This ain’t my first rodeo, as they say. I’ve directed several series and a feature so I don’t get rattled very often, plus the animators, designers and production people at Kavaleer are so good at what they do that I spend most of my day just stamping APPROVED on everything. Once in a while I have to come up with some incredibly genius idea, but that’s pretty rare – thank God.’
Following Kavaleer’s announcement of 30 jobs in 2012, the animation company’s Irish and International audience can expect the launch of several shows and Kavaleer apps this year. When asked about what to expect from Kavaleer Productions in 2012, Tim, who now divides his time between the US and Ireland added:
‘While I am continuing to work on that ‘top secret’ project that brought me back here to Ireland the studio is very busy at the moment with the launch of two new fantastic shows, BedHeads and So Mortified over the next two months. They both look great and I would love to have the time to work on them too.’
