We pride ourselves on having staff that are practitioners in animation - meaning they're active in the real world, bringing you the freshest animation news, real insights into working in industry, and promoting the latest techniques and practices. See more on who we are below:
Programme Leader
email: w.bishop-stephens@uel.ac.uk
Will Bishop-Stephens is an award winning Animation Director. He has animated for a diverse range of industry sectors including music, health, education, media, heritage and commercials. His films have been nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury prize at Sundance, the Grand Jury prize at AFI, Best British Animation at Edinburgh International Film Festival, and his work has won prizes at Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Animae Caribe and London International Animation Festival.
Will has been Programme Leader for Animation and Illustration at the University of East London since 2014. Prior to this he has been visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art, UCA Farnham, Westminster University and Plymouth University. Will's work can be seen here:
Senior Lecturer
email: p.pottenkulam@uel.ac.uk
Pooja Pottenkulam is an animation filmmaker and illustrator. She was trained in Animation at the National Institute of Design in India and at the Royal College of Art in London. Her animation films have been broadcast on MTV, Channel 4 and Nickelodeon and at various international film festivals. She is a regular illustrator for Scholastic and has illustrated over 40 books. She lives in London and is a Senior Lecturer in Animation and Illustration at the University of East London.
Her work can be viewed here:
Senior Lecturer
Russell Hedges teaches contextual studies for all three years of the animation programme at UEL.
Visiting Lecturer
Jess Mountfield is a freelance animator and director working across 2D and stop-motion. Graduating from the Arts University Bournemouth with a BA in Animation Production, she then interned at Aardman Animations. From there she began work at Karrot Animation in London working as an animator on TV shows for the BBC and SkyKids. She has directed projects for charities, financial start-ups, and the Australian NDS. Her short film 'Anna' showed in festivals worldwide and won awards including a Royal Television Society award and the Canterbury Anifest Best Animated Short prize. Jess is interested in all aspects of storytelling, with a particular love for felted stop-motion puppets and hand-drawn animation. She teaches employability skills, storyboarding, stop-motion and 2D puppet making and animation, and AfterEffects compositing.
Jess's work can be viewed here:
Animation Technician
Angeline Ferguson is an experimental animation artist with a Masters degree in animation from the Glasgow school of Art. She works collaboratively creating projection sequences for live performance and installation. Her animation work is created from hand crafted paper cut-out combining different print techniques, traditional and digital media. In addition to her role as specialist animation technician at UEL, she is also lectures at the Guildhall school and at City Lit.
Angeline Ferguson, along with Steve Birbeck make and play with materials and animation as Floating Concrete.
See more of their work here: