Meet the Judges

Eimear O’Mahony

Eimear O’Mahony has been in RTÉ for 20 years. Over that time she has worked in Sport, Current Affairs, Irish Language and Entertainment. She has produced documentaries, Winning Streak, Up for The Match, Electric Picnic and the Late Late Toy Show in 2018. She joined Young People’s Programmes in 2019 as an Executive Producer.

Deirdre Barry

Deirdre Barry is Programme Director of the National Talent Academy for Animation, a new initiative by Screen Ireland, managed by Animation Ireland, providing support and training opportunities to Irish-based creative talent. Deirdre has been in the industry for over 25 years. She began her career in Los Angeles and has been working in Ireland since 2001, where she has produced numerous shows including the award-winning animated series Sir Mouse and the Warner Bros’ Flintstones spinoff Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs as CEO of animation studio Salty Dog Pictures.

Stuart Forrest

CEO Triggerfish

Stuart Forrest is the CEO of Triggerfish, an animation studio based out of Galway and Cape Town, South Africa. Triggerfish has produced 2 TV series, 3 feature films, 6 half hour TV specials, and 15 short films for partners, including Disney+, Netflix, BBC One, Hasbro/eOne, Nickelodeon and Sony. Their work has won multiple BAFTAs, an International Emmy, and earned an Oscar nomination.

Stuart is a leader in developing the animation industry - establishing the Triggerfish Academy, which is breaking ground in training animators and artists, and the Triggerfish Foundation, which seeks to develop the animation industry in Africa.

Sarah Muller

Head of Commissioning & Acquisitions 7-12, Sarah Muller rejoined BBC Children’s in 2019 as Head of Acquisitions and Animation. Previously she was Vice President of Children’s and Youth Programming at Sony Pictures Television with responsibility for the Pop and Sony Music Channels and before that, Sarah was Head of Children’s at Channel 5 where she was responsible for the Milkshake! brand. She was also Creative Director, Scripted, Animation and Co-Productions for CBBC In-House, a role that grew from her work as Head of CBBC Acquisitions, Animation and Drama Development. Prior to joining BBC Children’s, she was Managing Director of Elephant Productions. As a producer, credits include 6 series of the multi-award winning, ratings success “Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids”(CITV).

Suzanne Kelly

Suzanne Kelly, recently appointed Head of Children’s and Young People’s content RTÉ, is responsible for overseeing the commissioning and development of animation, live action & audio content across RTÉjr and TRTÉ for TV, Radio & Online.

Suzanne has over 20 years experience working as a Producer/Director in the Irish audio visual sector. She has exclusively been creating children’s content since 2007 and wouldn’t and couldn’t do anything else. One of the achievements that she is most proud of is briefly holding the Guinness World Record for the most amount of people gunged in three minutes.

Mark Cumberton

Mark is currently Series Producer for ‘Nova Jones’ - 10 X 24 minutes for CBBC and recently completed, ‘Jessy and Nessy’ - 40 X 11 minutes for Amazon Studios. He was also the Series Producer for, ‘Becca’s Bunch’ - 52 x 11 minutes for Nickelodeon US & UK + ‘Little Roy’ – 52 x 14 minutes for CBeebies & CBBC and has produced, Zig & Zag, Zogcasts and Roy series 3 & 4. He was also the Producer on the original Roy 01-04 series, Baby Jake, PICME and the Media funded, Tilly and Friends and Funky Fables. Roy has won numerous international awards including BAFTA, RTS and Kidscreen. Mark has produced several short films, most notably the Irish Film Board funded, Badly Drawn Roy and Escape.

Mark continues as COO Chief Operations Officer & Co-founder of JAM Media since its inception in 2002. His position makes him responsible for the smooth running of all operations and productions by the company, ensuring that all productions are consistent with the world class high standard synonymous with JAM. Prior to co-founding JAM Media, Mark worked with Walt Disney Feature animation on ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘Hercules’ in Paris and Los Angeles and also with Don Bluth Studios in Ireland as a Special Effects Animator.

Orion Ross

Orion and his team develop and produce animated content originated in Europe and Africa, working with independent studios and producers across the region, for Disney’s global platforms including Disney Junior, Disney Channel and Disney+.

Recent and upcoming projects include the Disney+ Originals Chip ’n’ Dale: Park Life and the African sci-fi anthology Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire; pre-school series PJ Masks, Gigantosaurus and Kiya & The Kimoja Heroes; original children’s series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, 101 Dalmatian Street, The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti, Viking Skool, Counterfeit Cat, Furiki Wheels and Space Chickens in Space; and the BAFTA-winning Disney XDFC shorts program.

Prior to joining Disney’s London team, Orion lived in Hong Kong and worked as a producer for Star TV before his appointment as Creative Director for Turner’s Asia Pacific entertainment networks, where he developed original content including Exchange Student Zero for Cartoon Network, Galli Galli Sim Sim with Sesame Workshop, and the arts format M.A.D. for Pogo.

Kyle Jenkins

Kyle Jenkins is the Programme and Acquisitions Manager at Milkshake! Channel 5 and manages the content pipeline from pitch submission to programme delivery, including the development & production of commissions, acquisitions and short form as a Commissioning Executive. Kyle is currently the working across a wide slate of exciting new programmes as Executive Producer for the preschool audience including Pip & Posy, Tweedy & Fluff, Odo, Milo, Pop Paper City, Mixmups and Meet The Experts. Kyle has worked in children’s TV for over 10 years, starting in production and development at Nickelodeon, before moving into production management and producing shows including Tickety Toc and Floogals for Nickelodeon, Milkshake!, Universal Kids at Zodiak Kids Studios and Nevision Studios 1 Productions. Kyle also produces conference sessions for the Children’s Media Conference.

Alan Shannon

Alan is the CCO Chief Creative Officer & Co-founder of JAM Media and oversees the creative content conceived, animated and produced by the company.

Alan is currently Executive Producer for ‘Nova Jones’ series 2 & 3 – 20 X 24 minutes for CBBC. Other recent credits include Executive Producer on ‘Jessy & Nessy’ – 40 x 11 for Amazon Studios and Becca’s Bunch – 52 x 11 minutes for Nickelodeon US & UK.

He has also directed the BAFTA® award winning series ‘Roy’ series 01 - 04 for CBBC. Other directorial credits include, ‘Little Roy’ – 52 X 14 minutes for CBBC/CBeebies. ‘Baby Jake’ 02 – 26 X 11 minute preschool animation series and ‘Tilly and Friends’ – 52 X 11 minute preschool animation series for CBeebies, along with various other series such as ‘Funky Fables’ – 26 x 11 minute, and the award winning preschool animated series ‘PICME’ – 104 x 5 minute for RTE/Nickelodeon.

Boulder Media

Paul O’Flanagan is an award-winning director and one of the founding fathers of Boulder Media, having joined as its first animator in 2000.

In the years since, Paul has acted as animation director and director for many high-profile shows such as ‘Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends’, ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’, ‘Danger Mouse’ and My Little Pony for broadcasters such as Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, BBC and Disney. Paul has recently directed 20 episodes of ‘Transformers:Botbots’ which debuted on Netflix last year.

Paul has made several short films throughout the years. His most recent, ‘Memento Mori’ has bowed in over sixty festivals around the globe and was long listed for the Oscar’s ‘best animated short’.

Last year, Paul was promoted to serve as one of the Creative Directors in Boulder Media.

Mark Simon Hewis first joined Aardman 18 years as a Pixilation artist playing the body of the cult Aardman character “Angry Kid”. He subsequently spent 10 years in Aardman’s commercial department as a Director, Producer and 1st Assistant Director. His work outside of Aardman includes international award-winning films for the Arts Council, Channel 4 and BBC. His first feature film, 8 Minutes Idle was released in 2014 for BFI, BBC Films, Matador and Arthur Cox.

The Life Sized Zoetrope (2008) made for Channel 4, Arts Council UK and Animate was nominated for eight awards at the British Animation Awards and won the Grand Prix at the London International Animation Festival and the Tampere Film Festival. It subsequently gained distribution deals across the world and is regularly included in compilations, books and articles sighting key films in the history of alternation short animation.

General Manager, Kids & Family, Paramount UK & Ireland

Louise is General Manager Kids & Family, Paramount UK & Ireland, for Nickelodeon and Milkshake! with twenty-five years’ creative leadership experience as a children’s content strategist, commissioner and creative head on free to air and pay services. As the Kids & Family brand lead in UK & Ireland, she is responsible for leading content strategy and all editorial, strategic, financial and operational aspects of Kids & Family including commissions, acquisitions, programming, VOD, on-air studio, production, commercial and as an Executive Producer for production and development and sits on the Nickelodeon International Programming Council. Current commissions and acquisitions include Peppa Pig, Milkshake! Monkey, Pip & Posy, Thomas & Friends, Fireman Sam, Mimi’s World, Meet The Experts, Pop Paper City, Daisy & Ollie, Milo, Circle Square, Odo, MixMups, Tweedy & Fluff, Brave Bunnies, The World According To Grandpa, Go Green With The Grimwades, Meet The Experts, Cooking With The Gills, Show Me How, Oggy Oggy, Bop Box Boogie, Big Blue and Kangaroo Beach. Prior to joining Paramount, Louise worked in content leadership and production roles at Disney Channels, BBC Children’s and Children’s ITV and sits on the BAFTA Children’s Committee, Children’s Media Conference Advisory Committee and the ScreenSkills Children’s Council and is a member of BAFTA and RTS.