Producer Lawrence Cumbo has joined Pixeldust Studios, a multi Emmy Award-winning, digital animation and broadcast production studio headed by president and creative director Ricardo Andrade. Cumbo becomes sr. VP of development and content as part of an initiative to expand the company’s entertainment division.
Cumbo brings to Pixeldust an active development slate comprised of over 30 projects. Over the past 25 years, Andrade and Cumbo have forged a close friendship, which began when they first worked together producing indie films, live events and studio based programming. Pixeldust’s goal is to produce original TV series and specials for broadcast, SVOD’s, and sponsored content, as well as continue creating original VR-360 and AR content, and live stream programming.
Cumbo brings a decade of experience as an EP and showrunner to Pixeldust, which enjoys a rich history of producing short form content and award winning animation and motion graphics for high profile broadcast, cable and streaming television properties airing around the world.
In addition to its established position as an animation and production studio for hire by top broadcast and cable TV networks, educational institutions, and charitable foundations, Pixeldust’s entertainment division has successfully developed and produced three streaming TV series for client CuriosityStream. Launched in 2015 by Discovery founder John Hendricks as a non-fiction SVOD service, CuriosityStream is the world’s first, ad-free, on-demand subscription streaming service for nonfiction programming. Pixeldust’s work for CuriousityStream to date has included providing live action footage, high-end animation, and all production content for that SVOD’s new series “Ancient Earth,” for the series “A Curious World,” now in its third season, and for the first season of the series “The Bronze Age.”
Cumbo is a multi-award winning EP. He has delivered over 200 hours of programming for Smithsonian Channel, National Geographic Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery, TLC, A&E. and BIO Channel, and recently joined forces with Smithsonian Channel to create “Rocking the Opera House: Dr. John,” a new music series. Cumbo has also served as an EP for overseas concerns like Tiger Aspect Productions and Natural History New Zealand. Some of the titles Cumbo has overseen during his career include, “I Survived,” “Orangutan Island,” “Jurassic CSI,” “Celebrating the American Woman,” “Dark Days in Monkey City,” “Ms. Adventure,” “Rookies,” “Expedition Antarctica” and “Tornado Chasers.”
In 2000, Cumbo started his network television career at National Geographic Television and Film, and by 2005, had been appointed sr. producer with National Geographic Specials and Events Production. His films for National Geographic have taken him many places around the world, including war-torn Afghanistan, the rim of an active volcano in Guatemala, inside a tornado in Texas, and the world’s largest prison in India. He hiked with two eye surgeons from Maoist Rebel controlled territory in Nepal to the Himalayan Kingdom of Mustang in the Tibetan Plateau for his award-winning film, “Miracle Doctors.”
In 2004, Cumbo joined National Geographic Channel. There, he served as EP and oversaw over 60 hours of original programming, including such hits as “Inside the Mafia,” “In the Womb,” “Dark Side of Chimps” and “Megastructures.”
In 2002, Cumbo filmed, wrote, and produced “Search for the Afghan Girl,” the headline-making story of Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula, whose photograph first appeared on the cover of the National Geographic magazine in 1985. The film received a worldwide simulcast in over 120 countries, garnering over 150 million viewers during the premiere. The film was nominated for a 2003 Emmy Award and has won several additional industry honors. Earlier in his career, Cumbo produced independent documentaries for Cumbo Media.
