TED Community » Cynthia Wells

About Me

Cynthia Wells is an internationally exhibited artist and award-winning animation filmmaker. Currently Wells is creating an illustrated virtual piazza that features the Italian street theatre characters of the Commedia dell Arte and has also created limited edition prints that illustrate their hi-jinks.
Her first independent film, “Interview with Talullah, Queen of the Universe" is a satiric docu-drama about a jaded character named Tallulah. This film garnered her two Annie Award nominations making her the first woman to be nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Animation and Outstanding Achievement in a Short Film. Her second film “The Shadow of Doubt” screened at festivals around the world and garnered many awards and accolades. Wells’ paintings have been exhibited in Santa Monica, New York and Ottawa, Canada.
After studying animation and design from some of Disney’s famous nine old men, Ken O’Conner, Marc Davis, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson and other luminaries of the golden age of animation California Institute of the Arts, Cynthia began her career working for Walt Disney studios being trained by master animator Eric Larsen. From there she went on to work for other notables including Richard Williams of Roger Rabbit fame.
Wells has over 80 animation and directing credits in commercials, shorts, documentaries and feature films, including directing a TV episode of, "Mission Hill" (Warner Bros.) Cynthia also served as animation director at Rhythm and Hues as well as directing the animation sequences for the Academy Award nominated feature documentary, "A Sense of Life", Cynthia was supervising animator on "Once Upon A Forest", and "The Thief and the Cobbler". She also worked as animator on two Emmy award winning shows, "Ziggy's Gift", and " Roman City", as well as the features, "Anastasia" (Fox), "Space Jam" (Warner Bros.) and "The Quest for Camelot" (Warner Bros).