About Michael Cawood
Michael Cawood, has been creating animated films since 1994. He’s a multi-award winning British/American Animation Director and Supervisor based out of Los Angeles with credits in Film, Commercials and Games working with Dreamworks, Disney, Warner Brothers, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Microsoft, Activision, Nintendo, Sega and many more.
Michael has a broad creative skillset including directing, story development, animation, game design, character design, storyboarding, producing, previs, layout, rigging, editing, and supervising. He has a unique strength in directing online collaborations as first showcased in his 'Orson Welles Award' winning short film, 'Devils Angels & Dating', which attracted over 19 millions of views online. He repeated this success again with 'The Wrong Rock' which toured various Oscar qualifying festivals worldwide. Both films won 'Best Short Film' at the Burbank Film Festival (2012 and 2019). He also served as Head of Story for the multi-award winning 'The OceanMaker' which was screened at South by SouthWest. All three films screened at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, at the Hollyshorts Festival.
Michael supervised both, the previsualisation for Universal's new take on 'The Mummy' with Tom Cruise, and the postvis animation for 'Bumblebee'. Credits also include 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes', 'Happy Feet', 'Pete’s Dragon', 'Ghostbusters', 'Pirates of the Caribbean 5', and 'Night at the Museum 3'. He was the Animation Director for the game cinematics in 'Skylanders Giants' and Lead on 'Starfox Adventures' and the XBox 360 launch title 'Kameo'.
In 2025, Michael shipped his first game as a Director, Game Designer, Producer and Generalist. The Phoenix Gene is an exceptional expereince in VR gaming with unique mechanics that really takes advantage of wireless VR. It's availble on Steam and the Meta Quest.
-
Enrique Caballero,
Character Technical Director for Animal Logic"Working with Michael was a total pleasure, he brought a lot of talent and ability to the project and was always smiling and up for a laugh. Because of his work ethic and personality I would gladly work with him again on any project."
-
George Antzoulides,
Previs Lead on Fast & Furious 7"Michael is a very gifted artist who possess the rare ability to be both creative and technically proficient. Not only is he a great animator but he knows how to interpret storyboards into Previs and how to shoot a sequence with logic and excitement. I could always count on Michael to be a team player and help solve problems. He was a great asset to have on my team. I look forward to working with him again."
-
George Andreas,
Creative Director at Sony Computer Entertainment"Mike was a very ambitious and highly motivated artist who was never afraid to share his thoughts during the game development period. He had bags of energy and passion and had many skills in many areas. He showed a particular high level of skill and talent for putting together FMV movies and storyboards and I would definitely work with him again if our paths crossed in the future."
-
Duane Floch,
Previs Supervisor - MPC"I've really enjoyed having Michael on my team. The depth of his experience and his understanding of film-making have made him a tremendous asset to my team. I look forward to many more years of collaboration."
-
Justin Barrett,
Reel FX"I had the pleasure of working as a voice talent for Michael on his short film, "Devils, Angels & Dating." Through that work and later interactions, I came to know of Michael's amazing talent, versatility, and organization. He's got tons of experience in numerous disciplines in the CG animation industry, and brought all that experience to the table as director of the short. His goals for the project were very clear, and he did an awesome job of keeping the team on task in order to achieve those goals. And on top of all that, he's just a great guy; very relaxed and easy to work with at all levels. Michael would be a great asset to any company or project. I highly and heartily recommend him!"
