Mike Valiquette is a versatile creative professional and award-winning animation producer and director with 30 years of experience in the Canadian media sector.

After studying animation at Montreal’s Concordia University, Mike began his career as a preproduction and development artist and quickly moved into supervisory roles on a variety of animated series for clients such as Disney Television Animation, Nelvana, Cartoon Network, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers Television Animation. 

At 24 years old, Mike took on the role of Director of Development and New Business/Studio Manager at Ottawa-based indie studio, Dynomight Cartoons, where he launched an ambitious in-house shorts program and developed the first creator-driven, storyboard-driven animated series in Canada, the cult-favourite Untalkative Bunny. From there he took roles in unscripted live-action production for the fledgling Network, TalkTV and prototyped mass-participation interactive games for the NBA and NHL, while also turning his attention to teaching, completely retooling animation curriculum in subjects as diverse as Acting for Animation and Business of Animation. 

In 2008, Mike ventured into online community building, founding Canadian Animation Resources, a unique space that provided news, job posts and other resources to the Canadian animation community, while shining a light on the previously anonymous creators working in the field. He became a frequent guest speaker at schools, conferences and festivals in Canada and around the world, championing creator-driven and inclusive production models and advocating for common-sense approaches to artist rights.

Mike dove back into mainstream animation in 2011, taking the position of Director of Development at Toronto’s Smiley Guy Studios. During his time at Smiley Guy, he led the studio through a strategic creative rebranding, producing short-format content for prominent Youtube channels such as Smosh, College Humor and Mondo Media. He piloted, produced, and directed the Kids CBC series Chirp, based on the classic Canadian kids publication of the same name, produced, wrote, designed and directed the animated reboot of the classic Canadian superhero, Captain Canuck, and developed, produced and directed the Curse of Clara, a holiday special for the CBC, for which he won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Animated Program. 

In 2015, Mike was hired by the Shaw Rocket Fund to guide the development of their creative outreach program, Startoon. A truly unique undertaking, Startoon focused on artist-led concept development, providing online coaching, mentorship and industry feedback. Startoon resulted in over 150 new concepts produced, 3 series optioned for development, and over 200 hours of animated and unscripted content over the course of 2 seasons. Mike served as producer, creative director, led the writing team, and even acted as on-air host of the talent-facing Youtube Channel and the Startoon Cartoon Podcast.

In 2019, Mike shifted away from the mainstream animation sector, and focused his attention full-time on independent production through his boutique creative agency, GOLUCKY. He works with a varied and diverse group of directors on projects ranging from over the top toy demos for global kids brands, video game cinematics for indie game developers, and micro-budget features from indigenous creators. He wrote and directed his first independent short film, Animato Anthropomophica, a light-hearted rumination on classical cartoon tropes, and recently took on a fractional role as Director of Development for the Vancouver-based indie animation platform, Trickfilm.