Three-time Emmy award winning animation director for The Simpsons, Mark Kirkland, chats with Marie about all the aspects of his career as an artist: drawing, animation, directing, and comedy.
He talks about his beginnings drawing with his father, the famous photographer, Douglas Kirkland. About his time as a student learning from legendary Disney animators who worked on films like Bambi, Snow White, and Fantasia. He talks about the start of his career at Hanna-Barbera and how that prepared him for becoming a director on The Simpsons, not long after the show started, while it was still in its first season.
Mark shares a lot of what happens behind the scenes to create an episode of The Simpsons, how he sits in on table reads to create new characters, how he's taken acting classes to bring reality to his animations, how he inspires his team, and how he brought in his own instrument as a model for Lisa's saxophone!
