Corky Quakenbush and Joel Trussell have joined the directing roster of ka-chew!, the commercial production company owned by Gabor Csupo and Arlene Klasky, owners of multi-Emmy Award winning Klasky Csupo, Inc. The signing announcement was made by John Andrews, Head of Production at Klasky Csupo and EP/Creative Director of ka-chew!
Said Mr. Andrews, “What a great pair! Both are brilliantly comedic. Corky is a stop-motion animation director whose work is funny and irreverent, and his projects have been groundbreaking. I think it’s his hilarious independent shorts and his work on the early seasons of Fox’s ‘MADtv’ that paved the way for Cartoon Network shows like ‘Robot Chicken,’ and movies like ‘The Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ Meanwhile, Joel’s specialty is in the creation of quirky, 2D animated comedy with great characters. Plus he’s a favorite of the alt rock world with videos for acts like Morcheeba and M Ward. Both Corky and Joel had work in last year’s edition of Mike Judge’s ‘The Animation Show.’ They are each renowned in the animation universe, and I’m thrilled to have them on our roster.”
Corky Quakenbush’s television directing, producing and development credits include shows, pilots, and segments on FOX, MTV, NBC, ABC, WB, HBO, VH-1, Disney, Cinemax, Oxygen, TBS, Discovery, and PBS. He holds the record for number of films screened from a single director at the Sundance Film Festival (nine). Numerous festivals have honored Corky, in the form of tributes, retrospectives and awards. HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen honored him with a “Best Of” program.
In 2008, Corky returned to Fox’s ‘MADtv’ to create more than a dozen new shorts for their 12th season. During 2007-8, Corky created and directed 12 comic shorts for Turner’s comedy broadband channel SuperDeluxe.com. For more info, please see: http://www.kachew.com/work.php?director=48
Corky said, “I’ve had a long relationship with John Andrews, starting when he was at MTV in the ’90’s. I’m happy to be ‘coming back’ into the world of commercials with John as my EP. I felt now was a good time to reinvigorate my commercial direction, as most of my work during the past few years has been either service work for television and entertainment websites, short films, or the production of commercial parodies.”
Joel Trussell comes to ka-chew! through his association with 6PH (Six Point Harness), Hollywood’s killer, independent TV animation studio which is repped by ka-chew! in the ad space. Currently, Joel is directing for ka-chew! an on-line campaign for Nature Made for Ogilvy and Mather. All animation is being done at 6PH.
Joel has worked in the animation industry for over a decade. He has directed music videos for many popular artists, such as the Gossip, Jakob Dylan, Morcheeba, and Jason Forrest’s War Photographer, for which he won numerous awards, including the Ottawa International Film Festival’s “Best Music Video” honor. He has also directed several segments for Nick Jr’s “Yo Gabba Gabba,” and commercials for clients such as Nicorette and Esurance. For more info, please see: http://www.kachew.com/work.php?director=44
“I relocated to Los Angeles during 2009,” commented Joel, “And I feel more ‘in the mix’ being here than I felt previously. ka-chew! is a terrific collaborative partner, through which I can also seek new projects in conjunction with Six Point.”
ABOUT ka-chew!
ka-chew! specializes in projects with live action, design, 2D animation, CGI, and combinations thereof. The company has produced award-winning projects for some of the most respected networks and ad agencies in the industry. The shop is spearheaded by Executive Producer and Creative Director John Andrews, a 25-year animation industry veteran who joined in 1998. He first received wide attention as the producer of the “Beavis & Butt-Head” TV series and feature film. He also supervised such other MTV series as “Aeon Flux” and “Daria.”
ka-chew!’s work has included commercial spots for such major advertisers as Campbells, Conagra, Careerbuider.com, Kraft, Mattel, Mucinex, Lands End and Earthlink, and on-air promotions and design for ABC, A&E, ESPN, FOX, E!, MTV, and Nick, as well as title sequences for TV shows including “The Wayne Brady Show,” “The Simple Life,” “Punk’d,” “Nip/Tuck,” “The Osbournes,” and “Kathy Griffin: Life on the D List,” among others.
Rounding out ka-chew!’s directorial roster are Paul Cummings, Davy Force, David Russo, Elliot M. Bour, Parallax Studioworks, Liz Blazer, Tom Deslongchamp, Jeff Gill, Paul Westergard, Tom Schroeder, Sean Nadeau, Paul Sloboda, Nadia Roden, Carolle Shelley Abrams and London-based studio TRUNK, whose directors include Grigoris Leontiades, Steve Smith, Layla Atkinson, and Siri Melchior.
ka-chew! is located at 1238 N. Highland Ave, Hollywood, CA, 90038. The company can be contacted at 323 468-5939. Please see www.kachew.com for more information and representation.
