Michael Cook
About Michael Cook
Michael Cook is an animator’s animator; growing up a kid in the Disney decade, Cook has been a fervent watcher of cartoons since he was a kid back in the 90’s. From a young age, he knew that all he wanted to do is create cartoons that make people smile, and leave an imprint in the ever-changing animation industry.
After graduation from the Illinois Institute of Art-Schaumburg in 2012, Cook got a job for Toonopolis pictures in Indianapolis, IN. There he worked on “the Cartoon Guy Show” as an animator and puppeteer for the character “Dynamic”. The show was broadcast on PBS Indianapolis in 2013 thru 2015; Because of his dedication and hard work, he was nominated for an Emmy award in 2014 for “Best Children’s program”.
While working on The Cartoon Guy Show, Cook also was producing and directing the comic variety series, “HodgePodge Tonight!”, which was released on YouTube between the years 2014 -2016. The show went on to be broadcast on CAN-TV in Chicago, and also had two live performances: one at the famous Arcada Theater in St. Charles, IL, in 2013 and their last at the Cairo in West Chicago, IL in 2016.
His love for animation however has always been a driving point to everything he’s done; in 2017, he and his best friend Aaron Berogan founded Valley Studios as a cloud-based studio, and pooled talent together from literally all over the world to create content, including brand new Chucky Chicken cartoons.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Cook moved to Davenport, IA, where he and Berogan were able to set up show in a small studio downtown Davenport. It’s there where he plans to continue the Chucky Chicken series, as well as develop other projects through Valley, and for the world.