An award- winning Animator with over two decades of professional experience in a variety of styles and mediums ranging from stop-motion techniques to traditional hand-drawn work and 3-D computer animation. With early career highlights on Nickelodeon’s Doug and Schoolhouse Rocks! for ABC Television, Dean also has the distinction of being an animator on the 1998 Academy Award™ winning animated short film Bunny and the 2002 Oscar™ nominated feature Ice Age for Blue Sky Studios. The knowledge he has gathered from these experiences is shared freely as a guest lecturer at schools and studios throughout the northeast. Dean presently teaches full-time in the Undergraduate Division at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television. Dean continues to contribute animation to shows and segments on, among others, Nick Jr’s, The Wonder Pets! and Saturday Night Live’s TV Funhouse.

As a commercial animator Dean has always been hired to express someone else’s vision and sell their message. When completed, Dear Anna Olson will allow him to speak with his own artistic voice for the first time. With this film Dean will be able to fully explore performance, design, shot composition and even pacing in ways that is very different from commercial production. Ultimately, it is our hope that Dear Anna Olson will establish Dean as an animation artist with a distinct style, approach and message.