Tom has over thirty-five years of experience in the animation industry, first with Walt Disney Feature animation animating on such Disney classics as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan and Brother Bear. He is also the Creator of Mushu the dragon in Disney’s Mulan. He then worked with Big Idea Productions as a Supervising Director and Co-creator for the VeggieTales DVD series, The New Adventures of Larryboy! As an independent filmmaker, he helped create the relaunch of the Superbook series as co-director and character designer. He is the author of the popular character design instruction books Creating Characters with Personality and Character Mentor and creator of MerMay, a worldwide drawing event created in 2016. Tom is CEO of the first-ever crowd-invested animation company, Pencilish Animation Studios and half of the popular The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast with his twin brother Tony. In 2023, the documentary he produced, Pencils vs Pixels released on Amazon Prime. He is currently Co-director of the 2D animated feature film, The Light of the World that will release worldwide in September of 2025 and is in development on a live-action/2D animation feature.

He lives with his family in Nashville, Tennessee.

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