profile

Thanks to years of directing experience, John van Bruggen writes entertaining, well-visualized and production-friendly animation scripts. He loves telling a good story and gets a big kick out of seeing them come to life on screens around the world. John lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife, story artist Arna Selznick, and their cats, Kiki and Jasper.

screenwriter (1998 - present)

Clients include: Nelvana Ltd, Radical Sheep Productions, Guru Studio, Amberwood Productions, The Cookie Jar Company, zinc Roe Productions, 9 Story Entertainment, Mercury Filmworks and Decode Entertainment.

Animated series include: FRANKLIN AND FRIENDS, BABAR AND THE ADVENTURES OF BADOU, STELLA AND SAM, JUSTIN TIME, ROB THE ROBOT, TOOT AND PUDDLE, NOONBORY AND THE SUPER 7, BUSYTOWN MYSTERIES, RUBY GLOOM, MISS SPIDER'S SUNNY PATCH FRIENDS, THE SECRET WORLD OF BENJAMIN BEAR, PEEP AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD, GERALD MCBOING-BOING, JACOB TWO-TWO, FRANNY'S FEET, FRANKLIN and ROLIE POLIE OLIE.

In 2000 and 2004, John garnered GEMINI AWARD nominations for 'Best Writing in a Children's or Youth Program.'

John developed, wrote and co-directed (with Arna) five 5-minute COOLMAN! shorts for Nelvana's animated anthology series, FUNPAK. He wrote THE GOLDEN IDOL AWARDS, a half-hour one-shot ZIMMER TWINS special for zinc Roe. His long-form writing credits include BACK TO SCHOOL WITH FRANKLIN, a direct-to-DVD special, and a feature-length theatrical release, FRANKLIN AND THE TURTLE LAKE TREASURE.

director (1990 - 2001)

Credits include: BEETLEJUICE, FRANKLIN, GEORGE AND MARTHA, MARVIN THE TAP-DANCING HORSE, the GEMINI AWARD-winning (for Best Animated Series) JIM HENSON'S DOG CITY, and FRANKLIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT, a direct-to-DVD feature-length film.
OOO