SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Book Kris for your next event!
"By embracing what we don’t yet know, we create space to grow, discover, and better guide our own outcomes."
Drawing from years of expertise, Kris Wimberley offers a rare perspective on navigating the ever-evolving animation landscape and building inclusive pipelines for the next generation of artists. Attendees leave with a fresh perspective, industry insight, and actionable inspiration to pursue their own creative paths, making his sessions a highlight for students, professionals, and industry leaders alike.
Previous Engagements
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Bio
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. The full-scale, Los Angeles-based “bridge” studio, the first of its kind, is designed to elevate marginalized and underrepresented talent striving to break into roles on big studio projects.
Kris is a classically trained director and storyboard artist who currently serves as Supervising Director on Disney’s upcoming “Sofia the First: Royal Magic,” a sequel to the Emmy® and Humanitas Award-winning “Sofia the First.”
A graduate of California State University, Fullerton, Kris worked as a custodian at Disneyland while working his way up the ranks to pursue his passion for animation.
Additional Credits
Additional credits include Disney’s hit animated series, “Firebuds,” 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.
Topics
- Industry Innovation: Reimagining the Animation Pipeline
- The Not-So-Starving Artist: Careers in Animation
- Going Indie: The Bridge-Studio Model
- DEI in Animation
- Building Creative Studios
- Original Content Development
- Directing
- Storyboarding
Press
Learn more about our previous Press Engagements!