DIRECTOR BIO:
Your pal Mo Willems' checkered past includes sporadic employment as an animator, stand-up comic, radio commentator, ceramicist, and bubble gum card painter. After a stint in television (during which time he garnered six Emmy Awards for his writing on Sesame Street, created Cartoon Network's Sheep in the Big City, head-wrote CN’s Codename: Kids Next Door, and animated well over 60 shorts for festivals, HBO, Nickelodeon, and Sesame Street), Mo turned to picture books. His debut effort, the New York Times bestseller Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! was awarded a Caldecott Honor in 2004 and the following year Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (also a New York Times bestseller) garnered a second Caldecott Honor, leading The New York Times to dub Mo "the biggest new talent to emerge thus far in the 00's". Upcoming books include Leonardo the Terrible Monster and Time to Say ‘Please’! (a companion to his Entertainment Weekly book of the week, Time to Pee!) Mo's doodles have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the nation including the Museum of Television and Radio and the Chicago Art Institute, and his 9-11 inspired comix story (for DC Comics) resides in the Library of Congress' permanent collection. He is currently working on a chapter-book about an Invisible Invention Machine and annotating a cartoon journal documenting his year-long backpacking trip around the world in 1990-91. Mo lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. Among his achievements is getting his daughter to laugh at one of his dumb jokes.


DIRECTOR FILMOGRAPHY:
"The Man Who Yelled" (1994) *Included on "Avoid Eye Contact Vol. 2"
"Life" (1998) *Included on "Avoid Eye Contact Vol. 2"

To contact Mo, please write to dstarr@curiouspictures.com
Or go to his personal website, located at www.mowillems.com.