Ryan Cooper built Mukpuddy with two buddies fresh out of animation school and has grown the business supplying animated children’s shows to TVNZ, Channel Ten and ABC (Australia). An animation studio in Uptown sounded interesting, so we hounded Ryan until he caved and agreed to write about a typical day in the life of an animation director and head writer for Mukpuddy.

My alarm goes off ...

Around 7.30am. Well, it’s not so much an alarm, but the sound of my children getting ready for school in the noisiest way possible. I head into the city from my south Auckland home in Papakura, firmly crossing my fingers that the traffic is moving.

My work day begins ...

Around 9am, but my brain starts at about 10am, probably a common story for most creative types.

My current job ...

I am one of the founders of Mukpuddy Animation, but I am a director and the head writer – and sometimes voice actor.

My typical day ...

I split my day between numerous projects. We always have multiple productions on the go, so quite often my day can involve writing (currently our new kids’ horror/ comedy series Night Eyes), directing voice actors, approving shots and developing new animated shows. At the moment we are in pre-production on an animated adaptation of Badjelly the Witch, which we just recieved funding for as part of Te Puna Kairangi – Premium Productions for International Audiences Fund. It’s an absolute dream come true and I’m still pinching myself.

I’m proud of ...

The team we have assembled over the years. In 2002, it was just the three of us in a residential basement in Pakuranga and now we have a team of more than 40. I walk around the studio and am constantly staggered by the immense talent I see on display and it makes me ugly-cry-face- proud that they are part of the Mukpuddy family and hopefully will be for many more years to come.

My big break ...

It’s hard to put my finger on what I would consider my big break. In the past 20 years I’ve considered every finished project,
no matter how small, as part of the studio’s success. However, I would say landing our first proper full-length animated series (The Barefoot Bandits) at TVNZ 2 is the moment where I felt we finally got our foot in the door and were able to show Aotearoa and the world that we were capable of making world-class entertainment for the whole family.

My worst work habit is ...

My ability to never shut up. My school reports always said “Does well, but talks too much” and nothing much has changed, although now I get paid for it.

I chose Uptown because ...

It’s a wonderful creative hub and a great place for our crew to access from different sides of Auckland.

My most memorable moment ...

There’s been many in my 20-year career, but one that stands out was a family trip I took to Disneyland. We were walking through downtown Disney and an American guy passed me in the crowd and pointed at my Barefoot Bandits T-shirt and said “I love that show”. I had to stop him to ask how he had seen it and he informed me that he had downloaded it on a torrent site. He was a little shocked to find out I was one of the show’s creators, but as far as I was concerned, flying halfway across the world and bumping into someone who had illegally downloaded my show felt like a huge “I’ve finally made it” moment. Also, we once got to hang with Stan Lee at a Disney rooftop party, but that’s just shameless name dropping.

Outside of work ...

I love nothing more than spending time with my wife and two kids. I also sometimes make birthday cakes. It started out as a fun side hobby for my kids' birthdays and quickly became a game of “how do I make this one better than the last?” The downside of being a raging perfectionist.

My plan B ...

There is no plan B. This is my passion and the job I have dreamed of since I was a young boy. Although, if it did all go belly up, I guess I better get baking cakes at a faster rate.

I fall asleep ...

After watching some TV with my wife and after taking waaaay too long to figure out the latest Wordle.