Wayne

Hi, Happy Holidays! Congrats, you just about made it through 2025–or at least to this weird food coma limbo between Christmas and New Years. Phew! Dunno about you, but I’M beat (up and bruised). Take a load off. Hunker down from the cold here with this fella. He’ll play you a tune on his tiny banjo. He also takes requests. Except Wonderwall. Hope you enjoy some time with loved ones and get to rest, recover, eat a ton of good food, all that good stuff so you can be strong and ready to tackle 2026. I promise you, you’ve got this. #happynewyear #happyholidays #animation #snow #noaiart

🇨🇦 Hi Canadian friends and family, Mermicorno: Starfall will premiere episodes 1 & 2 on @ytvofficial TODAY (February 3rd) at 5:30pm est. Then they’ll be on @stacktv and #teletoon+ tomorrow (February 4th). Mermicorno airs weekly! Hope you can tune in! Congrats again Mermicrew! @atomiccartoons @stacktv @tbirdent @tokidokibrand #mermicornostarfall #mermicorno #ytv

It’s finally here, episodes 1-13 of Mermicorno: Starfall are streaming now on @streamonmax and with that I’m pumped to share our first trailer. Surprise! I tricked everyone into making a fun Mahou Shoujo action adventure anime! ✨💥 I had the fortune of working closely with so many creative and talented folks the past couple years and that collaboration and creativity is a huge part of what motivated me, even during the toughest moments. Thank you all for that. Thanks to @simonelegno and @tokidokibrand for creating Mermicorno and giving us the keys to the Pearl Palace. Thanks to @sheafontana for developing and crafting this idea into a world with an oceans worth of depth for us to play in and @jgeds and her team of writers for building on it with so much craft, care and attention to detail that you had me hooked on the adventure along the way with you. To the ENTIRE crew at @atomiccartoons thank you for putting your faith in me. @dtardioli and the production team for keeping things as smooth as possible even during the stormiest days at sea! I’m truly grateful. Our anim director @ppthefury , art director @cmac_art , and all of our out of this world supervisors; thank you all for having steady hands on the wheels and most importantly to me, kind hearts with your teams. I wanted to mention everyone by name but turns out there’s a tag/character limit and I have hit it (booo!) My hope is you can all walk away from this feeling good about your experience and proud of the work you did! As well as our talented animators and friends at Red Door! Our star studded Mermi-Cast: @brynmcauley as Astra, Barb and Pearl Girl @annick_obonsawin as Gwen and Royal Mother Pearl @_kayakanashiro as Kameko @trukimmy as Squishella @jonathanmlangdon as Nautique and Sawtooth And our wonderful Voice Director Marilyn McAuley and the folks at WANTED! SOUND. Your talent and efforts made it easy to bring these characters to life. I’m so proud of all the folks that lent their creative force to Mermicorno. I’m excited for everyone to experience all the heart you’ve poured into this and see it burst off the screen. Congrats Mermicrew! Your friendly neighborhood Directicorno, - Wayne

Off into the mountains 🏔️

What’s that? A Holiday Frog singing Michelle Branch’s 00s pop hit “Breathe”? Just for you? I dunno if I believe you, but ok 🤔 Pretty cool if true, I guess Hope everyone has a great holiday and that you get to spend it with those you love! Rest well and be strong for whatever 2025 throws your way Happy Holidays (Just breathe~)!

An epic ocean adventure is on the horizon! 🦄 🧜‍♀️ 🌊 Happy to share that Mermicorno: Starfall will be dropping on @streamonmax on January 16! EDIT: The date has changed to January 30th! I’ve been fortunate to direct this series at @atomiccartoons in partnership with @tokidokibrand and I couldn’t be more proud of the entire cast and crew who’ve worked so hard to make it as exciting, epic, action packed and magical as possible. The talent and craftsmanship on display here is through the roof and I’m glad to have gotten to work with such an amazing group of people. More to share in January! #mermicorno #mermicornostarfall #tokidoki #streamonmax @familyonmax @tbirdent

No thoughts behind these eyes . . . Only Merry Crissmuss and Heppy Holidaze 🎅🏽 🎄

I was fortunate to be interviewed for the April issue of @animationmagazine for their “Rising Stars of Animation 2023” article along with some incredible folks. Including my ridiculously talented friend @leeanndufour ✨ It’s really an honor to be among them. Video interview of us is forthcoming (Also the little kid in me is screaming about being in the same issue where Super Mario is on the cover) Check it out online here: /2023/03/rising-stars-of-animation-2023/

Woke up to this today and I’m pretty floored. It really brightened my day. I’m grateful for the recognition, but am incredibly grateful to the entire team that worked on this. ♥️🙌🏽 Congrats to all the nominees! @atomiccartoons @stephkaliner #cdnscreenawards

👋 Hi! I had the pleasure of directing this year’s Holiday short for @atomiccartoons and @tbirdent 🌸 I had a great time working with a wonderful team. Hope you enjoy! Hopefully you also have a great holiday and a happy new year 🌱 /781867955/8942781108

Pinecone and Pony released this past weekend so I drove my beat up Mazda 3 (MY noble steed!) down to the Toronto screening. Sitting in a theatre seeing an audience react to a show you had a hand in will always be a surreal, humbling and affecting experience. This was the biggest project I’ve taken on in my career so far, as well as being a first time series director. It also happened to coincide with a global pandemic and all the weight that carries. To say I’m exhausted would be an understatement, but that also comes with a tremendous amount of pride and honor to have worked with some of the most wonderfully talented and KINDEST group of people ever assembled. Time after time this team impressed me with not only their drive, but their compassion for each other as well. It’s a bittersweet ending as now we’re all scattered to the winds and that camaraderie we all shared is a singular moment in time that can’t be replicated. I hope I get to see and or work with you all again some day. This is a milestone not only in my career but my growth as a person as well. I learned a lot as a director, yes, but also had to confront a lot of things about myself as an individual (the good and the bad parts). For better or worse that’s something that I would not trade for anything. I hope I did right by you all. I hope we did right by Kate’s book. I hope kids and families will love this show. I hope it will take their mind off the troubles of the world, if only for a brief moment. I hope some of the characters provide representation for marginalized folks and communities that so often don’t get the screen time they deserve in TV shows. I hope they feel seen. I just have nothing but… Hope! Thank you all so much from the bottom of my very tired but very, very stubborn heart ❤️ A big shoutout to @maitegr13 for being my co-pilot, helping to steady the plane and prop up my corpse from time to time💀 A huge thank you to @kate.beaton and @stephkaliner for putting their faith in me and this team. Your support meant everything. I missed a bajillion people so please feel free to tag them in the comments as well. I want everyone to know I appreciate all their hard work.