The Spark Cast

Rick Mischel’s journey took him from the electric buzz of Broadway in New York to the sunny embrace of South Florida and now as Founder and CEO of Artists Animation Studio, to Kelowna, BC.

His early days as a Club Med kids' club counselor and a number of other unexpected roles laid the foundation for an ex...

Dawn Fidrick's journey from the vibrant stages in Drexel Hill to the dynamic film sets of New York City is one of taking chances and seizing opportunities. Raised on the East Coast, Dawn shares how early experiences sparked her love for performing. Following the tragic events of 9/11, she found herself in New York, embarking on a 12-year ...

Faruk Heplevent's story begins with a passion for photography and a neighbour's friend who needed an apprentice. The mix of technical and creative appealed to the young enthusiast and the precision and technicality he learned in those early years paid off as his career developed. Faruk was one of the few individuals who could process film on the go - a ...

Growing up in the English Midlands, Georgina Hayns defied academic norms, discovering her passion for the arts in a technical college. Her journey reflects the transformative power of parental support and prioritizing passion over conformity.

From childhood struggles to professional success, Georgina's story is a testament to embracing individuality. Her career trajectory highlights the importan...

Zach Lipovsky has early memories of a childhood spent on sets surrounded by the buzz of TVs and master controls, thanks to his mother's career in television. But it was a transformative experience at the tender age of nine when Jurassic Park left an indelible mark on him. The youthful actor-turned-filmmaker invested his early earnings into the digital revolution, teaching himself visual effects and collabo...

Ashley Christine is used to battles, from growing up off the grid in the White Mountain National Forest and contending with the harsh elements of New Hampshire winters to navigating the social media landscape, she has dealt with both physical and mental battles. But how does a young woman go from studying mathematics at university to spending her days making TikTok videos about STEM?

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Growing up among the steel mills of Hamilton, Ontario, Don Perro knew he wanted something different for his life but when his first attempt at getting out failed, he knew he needed to cast his net wider and the result was acceptance at art school in Vancouver where he found his comrades among the misfits studying animation at Emily Carr College of Art and Design (now known as Emily Carr University of Art an...

There was little doubt that Lera Nyukalova would be an artist. Her first foray into art was sketching Sailor Moon but her passion and drive to learn and challenge herself led her first to university to study architecture and eventually to make the move from Kazakhstan to Vancouver to further her practice.

Lera found solace and inspiration in the dynamic urban landscape of...

Sam Fell was always drawn to creation and in the 1980s, he found himself in London, studying fine art and making interdisciplinary works of art, junk sculptures with speakers and cassette tapes inside, and eventually adding mechanics to move his works. It was around this time that he rediscovered stop-motion animation and the works of The Quay Brothers and Jan Švankmajer.

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Growing up on a dairy farm in Denmark, Brian Leif Hansen assumed he’d spend his life living near where he grew up, perhaps a farmer himself, but the universe had other ideas for him.

While a love for puppets and animation was always with him, that didn’t seem like a viable option for a career so he did the next best thing and trained to be a chef. While he didn’t ...

From the moment she learned to read, Audrea Topps Harjo has been a creator, first turning words into worlds in her mind, and then sharing those stories she loved so much with her family as a performer. Her passion led her to filmmaking in various forms, from telling her own stories in her own voice as a director, to helping other creators bring their visions to life. ...