Will Adams
Founder - Creative Director
Sueann Rochester
Founder - Managing Director
Ron Henry
Founder - Director of Operations
Rory Lowe
Founder - Creative Director
Michael McKiernan
Founder - Finance Director
Anthony Eliot-Finch
Head of Business Development
Paul Niemandt
Head of Systems
Martha MacDiarmid
Head of Development
Derik van den Berg
Head of Realtime
Vicki Haworth
Episodic Director
John Harkins
Head of Layout
Suzie Brearley
Head of People and Culture
Scott Jardine
Lighting Supervisor
Jakes van den Berg
Senior CG Rigger
Georgi Petrov
Head of Assets
Jamie Harris
Edit Supervisor
Nicole Stockley
Production Manager
James Herbert
Editor
Kerri Rolland
Line Producer
Eliza Guzikowska-Siupik
Supervising Production Manager
Fanny Lacôte
Production Coordinator
Jade Crooks
Production Coordinator
Kyle Giannandrea
Systems Admin
Will Adams
Founder - Creative Director
Will Adams is a BAFTA-winning creative director and co-founder of Wild Child Animation, and episodic director on ‘Toad & Friends’- a Cartoon Network series based on The Wind in the Willows.
Raised on a farm in Fife, and having studied Philosophy at Bristol University, Will was logically drawn to a career in animation…
Prior to being a Wild Child, from 2002 until 2020, Will was a co-founding director of Once Were Farmers, where he worked across animation, live action and visual effects, directed and produced 14 mini-series for BBC Learning, and his first award-winning short ‘Terrafarmer’in 2008.
With the Scottish Film Talent Network, Will developed and produced the 2018 BAFTA winning animated short ‘Widdershins’, and directed ‘Nothing to Declare’ – a short animated horror written by comic book legend Frank Quitely. In stark contrast to that, Will also art directed the cuddly, tactile world of ‘Hushabye Lullabye’ for CBeebies.
In 1998 Will co-founded the live-video group, Pointless Creations and performed at arts festivals across Europe, interspersed with digital imaging and illustration work on the Sunday Herald and Scotsman newspapers.
Sueann Rochester
Founder - Managing Director
Driven by a love of all things animated and a need to organise things, Sueann was always destined to be an animation producer. She graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a degree in Animation and moved into her first production role at Red Kite Animations. With over 20 years of experience in long form TV production Sueann has worked with clients including Cartoon Network, Disney, the BBC and DC Thomson and produced BAFTA and EMMY nominated shows ‘Dennis & Gnasher’ and ‘Ask Lara’. She also produced the BAFTA winning series The Brilliant World of Tom Gates for Sky Kids.
Sueann is Co-founder and Managing Director of Wild Child Animation. She is also on the board of Animated Women UK and Animation Scotland. As well as creating great content her goal is to nurture and develop new talent and to support the Scottish animation industry.
Ron Henry
Founder - Director of Operations
Ron is one of the founding members of Wild Child Animation and is the Operations Director for the Studio where he is also responsible for the overall technical strategy. With a background in photography he has nearly 30 years experience in digital content creation and technology.
Having previously established a motion capture studio to produce animated children’s TV shows back in 2013, Ron has a keen interest in the relationship between creativity and technology and how the two can work together in a sum is greater than the parts way.
Rory Lowe
Founder - Creative Director
The perennial pot stirrer, Rory sees things a little differently. Which sounds great but can be a little annoying. Thankfully it generally works out for the better in the end, and everyone goes home with a smile on their face and a warm glow in their belly. Rory has a unique vision and brings fresh perspective and an exacting eye for detail to every project he is engaged with.
Rory studied ‘Environmental Art’ at the world renowned Glasgow School of Art, but nobody ever worked out what Environmental Art is…
Rory has made some films, some TV shows, won some awards and started a company or two.
When not obsessing about Film and TV, Rory makes fires, big fires you can dance around…
Michael McKiernan
Founder - Finance Director
Qualified Chartered Accountant with 20 years experience across multiple industries from manufacturing, pharmaceutical, logistics and finally spending most of the last 10 years in the creative industry.
Prior to joining Wild Child as Finance Director, Michael was at Axis Studios for 7 years. He was part of the Executive Management team and Board and helped transform the business from a 30 to 250 person studio across multiple locations working with major global studios such as Netflix, Amazon Studios, Lego and Universal NBC.
Michael is part of the founding Wild Child team and is responsible for the overall financial strategy and controls for the business. Working closely with our finance team and production he ensures that all of our projects have adequate controls and are delivered on budget for our clients.
Anthony Eliot-Finch
Head of Business Development
Anthony has worked within the animation and VFX industries around the UK for 11+ years, most recently at Framestore and Axis Studios working across high profile projects for clients such as Warner Bros, Universal, Disney, Netflix, Mattel and many more.
His roles have covered all levels of production from Production Management to Producing on fully animated feature films such as “Welcome to Monster High” & “Monster High : Electrified” to animated tv series such as “Happy!” S1 & S2. He also has experience producing in the Art Department to achieve a high end visual look for big feature films in their early stages of development.
As the Head Of Production it’s important to him to keep a production running smoothly whilst maintaining a fun and collaborative environment to work in. Anthony’s passion lies in stylised CG feature projects and this enthusiasm and energy is put into all of Wild Child’s current and upcoming involvements.
Paul Niemandt
Head of Systems
Paul’s fascination with computers and technology led him to study computer science and a career in programming and systems architecture. Loving complex problems, once introduced to the animation industry there was no looking back. The rapidly changing landscape of the animation industry provides a perfect mixture of creative artists and innovative technological solutions that makes it an exciting and very rewarding challenge.
With an approach that technology should be making your life better, Paul can usually be found at his desk staring at some code, or knee deep in network cables somewhere in a server room.
Martha MacDiarmid
Head of Development
Martha has been working in long form TV production, film and advertising for over 15 years, working with clients including Samsung, Disney, the BBC, ZDF and DC Thomson.
From resident tea maker to Head of Production, Martha’s happy place is in development, working with creators and writers to produce world class properties for the global marketplace.
In her spare time Martha can be found pottering away in her home Ceramics studio or running after her two little boys
Derik van den Berg
Head of Realtime
After a very short lived stint in the fashion industry, Derik found the wonderful world of animation. He joined the animation and VFX world and never looked back.
He quickly realised that he much preferred the technical side of things and started working on his scripting skills to improve his quality of life in his day to day work. This quickly spilled over to studio wide solutions for automating daunting, repetitive tasks and he started concentrating more on pipeline development.
With a very good understanding of workflows in all departments of an animation pipeline, he attempts to create the “glue” that attaches departments and assists with clean hand-overs from one department to the next.
More than twenty years down the line, he is still reinventing himself with new ideas and technologies in mind.
Vicki Haworth
Episodic Director
Vicki knew she wanted to be an animator from a very early age. Growing up she was glued to the TV on Saturday mornings watching Looney Tunes, He-Man, The Turtles, Thundercats, and all the Disney films she could get her hands on.
Attracted by their 3D animation programme, she studied animation at Dundee University, however her passion and talent lay elsewhere…in drawing!
Years later, this talent helped realise her childhood dream of working on ‘old school’ hand-drawn feature films, including The Illusionist, The Breadwinner, Ethel & Ernest, and Klaus to name a few.
She has also worked on several Children’s TV series as a Storyboard Artist and Animation Director.
In her free time Vicki can be found wandering round weird and wonderful places with a camera, giggling at silly car horns, or (more often than not) in the boxing gym knocking the stuffing out of a punchbag……or her boxing opponent!
John Harkins
Head of Layout
Beginning his career as a junior animator in Glasgow, John is now Head of Layout at Wildchild in Stirling, via studios across Europe from Copenhagen to Paris. John has contributed to dozens of game cinematics and cutscenes, as well as the occasional feature film, but is happiest when working on long format tv shows. John believes storytelling is what makes us human, and considers it both a privilege and responsibility, especially when those stories are for children. When not spending his days crafting myths and fables, John supports Glasgow’s Green and White and consumes more media than the government recommended daily intake.
Suzie Brearley
Head of People and Culture
Suzie is Wild Child’s people person. She finds and hires our awesome crew members and works across departments to help with things like team structure and resource planning. Suzie’s job is all about helping teams perform at their best!
With over 12 years experience in visual content, Suzie has produced books, tv shows and YouTube content for people like Disney, Nickelodeon and Sky. One of her highlights include a year shooting wildlife TV for Nat Geo WILD as well as writing for Winnie the Pooh.
Scott Jardine
Lighting Supervisor
Scott is an accomplished lighting artist with extensive experience in the animation, games and VFX industry. Previously with Axis Studios, he has worked on numerous high-profile projects for clients such as Netflix, Sony, Blizzard, and Riot.
At Wild Child, Scott is responsible for overseeing and developing our lighting and FX departments. Inspired by creative and technical challenges, he strives to bring characters and environments to life in a way that captivates audiences and enhances the storytelling.
Outside of work you can find Scott chasing waterfalls with Chewie, his Yorkshire terrier and cheering on his beloved football team…who tend to need an awful lot of cheering.
Jakes van den Berg
Senior CG Rigger
Jakes is the Snr Character Rigger at Wild Child Animation and has been working in long form TV production, visual effects for film, and advertising for nearly twenty years.
Jakes originally studied as a Chef, and proudly wore his ‘toque blanche’ for a few years as a culinary artist, dishing up delicacies for the rich and famous before moving into CG where he started his career as a generalist, however, he quickly found his love in the Asset Department for Character rigging with all its technical challenges. Breathing life into a 3D mesh, is to die for!
In his spare time, he likes to whistle to get his dog’s attention, then grab his metal detector for a few swings. There is nothing better than digging deep into Mother earth for lost treasure.
Georgi Petrov
Head of Assets
Georgi has a decade of experience in the animation and VFX industries. At Wild Child Animation he specialises in CG visual development which sees him handling everything from look dev to shader writing, FX to CG troubleshooting.
Georgi graduated from GCU in 2012 with a job offer from boutique Animation and VFX studio, Once Were Farmers, for 2D visualisation. Later, Georgi turned his attention to translating his skills into CG and now works with Unreal Engine, Maya, Cinema 4D, Substance Painter and more. He has worked with clients like BBC, Netflix, Sky and Warner Media on children’s TV shows, educational content and movies.
Jamie Harris
Edit Supervisor
Jamie has recently joined Wild Child Animation as Edit Supervisor in March 2023, bringing with him 10 years of Editorial experience across animation & VFX for TV and feature film.
From animated TV series, stop motion commercials, animated album visualisers to Hollywood action films; Jamie has experience across numerous roles, working with broadcasters and distributors such as Netflix, Working Title, Universal and Warner Records to name but a few.
Story editing, editorial workflow and technical troubleshooting are core skills, as Jamie has been involved with the planning, production and finishing of multiple long and short form projects.
Nicole Stockley
Production Manager
Nicole has been fortunate to find herself in the industry after studying animation at university for four years. She found a love for production which came naturally to her. She loves to watch the project come to life from the start all the way through to the finish line.
Nicole has worked for some fabulous clients such as Netflix, Microsoft and Riot. Animation has always fascinated her from a young age, growing up with Disney characters plastered across the bedroom walls.
The job is never dull for Nicole and with softwares, projects and styles forever changing it keeps her brain engaged!
When Nicole isn’t busy working, she loves living her best dog mum life with two beautiful little pups.
James Herbert
Editor
James jumped into the world of animation in 2016 and did not look back. Working as an animation editor ticked all the boxes: he gets to be creative, have a laugh, and pick up new tips and tricks from the many other amazingly talented, skilled people with whom he rubs shoulders. He often finds himself thinking ‘Who doesn’t like working with a hearty, fun team with a shared goal to create emotionally fulfilling stories and new enjoyable worlds, eh?!?!’.
To quote, “I love it when a plan comes together” – American freedom fighter Lieutenant Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith.
His alter ego is a mild mannered Green Town Councillor for the small and old, yet dynamic market town of Lewes. If you need him, you can find him tinkering away inside his 1980’s campervan.
Kerri Rolland
Line Producer
Kerri loves stories; the way they are told, the connection with the audience and how they help us to learn more about the world. Obtaining a Drama degree, she then gained a post-grad in TV Production and started working as a feature film script reader.
Later, Kerri joined the team at Red Kite Animation where life changed forever. Here she learned the processes of animation production and worked across long form animated TV series for international broadcasters. Now at Wild Child, Kerri is thrilled to be producing children’s content and making stories.
Eliza Guzikowska-Siupik
Supervising Production Manager
After getting a degree in Sociocultural Animation and having a go at Computer Science, Eliza found her way to Computer Animation. Combining her leadership and organisational skills with love for creative process of any kind, she took up a career in production, working on various projects for game industry and television, resulting with addiction to strictly colour-coded spreadsheets.
As a Supervising Production Manager she focuses on establishing clear, consistent processes across the production team. Recognizing contingency and healthy departmental spacing as principles of scheduling she monitors feasibility of delivering projects in a given time, and ensures that there is always a creative solution to minimise any unwelcome impact on the schedule.
Fanny Lacôte
Production Coordinator
Aka ‘Dr Lacôte’, Fanny was a university lecturer and researcher on all things Gothic before knocking at the door of Wild Child Animation for her very first production role in 2021.
She started as a Production Assistant and became a Production Coordinator in 2022.
Her favourite part of the role is working closely with the team of artists, seeing the artwork first hand and the constant learning process when it comes to troubleshooting issues.
When she is not busy organising the workload for her team, Fanny can be found reading everything and nothing, helping out at her local animal shelter and taking her cat Mina on adventures in the great outdoors.
Jade Crooks
Production Coordinator
Jade has been a fan of kids cartoons for as long as she can remember. She used to sit and stare at the tv, amazed by what she was seeing, so when she got the chance to study animation she was shocked to discover the amount of work that went into a single episode.
Kyle Giannandrea
Systems Admin
Kyle has over two years of experience in Information Technology working in multiple industries. He started in IT when he was 16 years old and his first role was an apprentice Helpdesk Technician. It was in this time that Kyle developed his passion for being a Systems Admin, which brought him to Wild Child.
Kyle has been with the team for almost 8 months and finds it super-exciting to be discovering the animation and VFX industry. He is keen to see and learn more over the coming months.
When Kyle isn’t busy working, he likes cooking meals, hanging out with friends and going on walks.