Animation Careers & The Guild

The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839 is the labor union that represents artists, writers, technicians, and production workers in the animation industry.  The union IS the members, and they stand together to help set standards for wages and working conditions so that they can build and sustain successful careers in a creative field.  The panelists represent different crafts in the industry, and will talk about their personal animation journeys, from how they got their starts to where they are now.

Paula Spence (Moderator)
Art Director & Designer

Kris Mukai
Scriptwriter & Illustrator

Amanda Li
Art Director & Visual Development Artist

Kris Wimberly
Studio Co-Founder & Head of Creative

Paula Spence is an Art Director and Designer in the TV animation industry, most recently at Nickelodeon Animation Studio (a SpongeBob Universe movie for Netflix), ShadowMachine (Little Demon) and Cartoon Network Studios (Shorts, Close Enough, Regular Show, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack). She enjoys building teams of talented artists, making meaningful connections and gorgeous artwork with them, and organizing the hell out of her projects. She serves on the Executive Board and as Recording Secretary at The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839, as a TAG Foundation Director, and strives to engage her fellow members and inspire them to volunteer for the greater good of the union’s membership, future members, and the industry as a whole.

Kris Mukai is a scriptwriter and illustrator working in Southern California. She has drawn for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Peachtree Publishing. She writes for tv animation and her credits include work for Adventure Time, Craig of the Creek, and We Baby Bears. Along with writing and illustrating she also self publishes various comics. Her work can be found at hikrismukai.com.

Amanda Li is an Asian American art director and visual development artist based in LA with over a decade of creative expertise in 2D and CG animation. She has a passion and enthusiasm for visual storytelling and developing shows in the children animation space. She has worked with a number of studios including Netflix Animation, Disney Television Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and DreamWorks Animation. She was most recently art director for the Nickelodeon Development Shorts Program and is currently lead visual development artist on Monster High. Prior to her transition to animation, she received her Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Pennsylvania State University and worked several years as an architect.

Kris Wimberly is Co-Founder and Head of Creative for Studio Smokescreen, an independent, Black-owned animation studio dedicated to leading significant changes in diversity and inclusion across the animation industry. Kris is a classically trained director and storyboard artist who currently serves as director on Disney’s newest hit animated series, “Firebuds.” He also has a new project in development at Disney about a time-traveling treasure hunter. Kris’ additional credits include HBO Max's “Close Enough,” Disney’s “Elena of Avalor,” Universal's “Curious George 4: Royal Monkey,” Nickelodeon's “Spongebob SquarePants” and Cartoon Network's “Teen Titans Go!” He specializes in comedy and action-comedy, and has worked on animated productions of nearly every type - from 2D, CG and Flash Animation to script-driven and storyboard-driven, and across preschool, kids and primetime television series, as well as feature films.