FSTVS - The Executive Sessions

About FSTVS - The Executive Sessions

In this series we talk to high profile executives in the animation and kids television industry. We aim to take a look at the person behind the title, find out a little more of what they do, how they got there, and maybe a little more about them along the way. Enjoy the journey. This series is powered by Liberi Consulting - https://libericonsulting.com/ - and hosted by Julian Scott, Animation Consultant

Publisher

Rob Doherty

Category

arts · tv & film

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Jun 2024

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

38 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Oct 2026

   FSTVS - The Sandbox Sessions - JP Vine

   “I had some very, very unglamorous jobs. Like, I was animating carrots.” Jean-Philippe “J.P.” Vine joins the Julian to trace a career he describes as “completely haphazard and just kind of following my nose.” JP studied theatre design at Central Saint Martins, drawn in by a GCSE drama project — a model First World War trench with working practical lights — and a childhood of model railways and French comics. Theatre proved hard to make a living from, and after work for the RSC and the Bristol Old Vic he was rejected by Aardman as a model maker for “not being technical enough,” finally getting in as a set dresser on Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Watching the animators, he realised they were “having the most fun,” took a training puppet home and taught himself to animate from Richard Williams’ book — enough to earn shots in the film. A storyboard test for Shaun the Sheep changed everything. Its non-verbal, hundred-shot economy became, he says, his film school, and boarding — “writing and directing and acting and drawing and designing all together” — became his craft. After four years at Aardman, spells in Jerusalem and one Pixar rejection, he was invited to reapply, threw a portfolio together in four days while teaching in Florence, and joined Pixar in 2012 on Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur and Cars 3. He left Pixar to co-direct Locksmith Animation’s first feature, Ron’s Gone Wrong, uprooting three children from California to do it — and learned on that film the limits of pretending to know everything. His short Cardboard, about pigs in a Nevada trailer park, grew out of a family road trip and years of idle doodles; it was BAFTA-nominated and Oscar-shortlisted. Now Creative Director at Dream Games Animation, building a London studio from zero, he insists specificity of voice — Bluey, Pingu, Nick Park — is what reaches an audience.

2. 

   29 Jun 2026

   FSTVS - The Executive Sessions - Emmet O'Neill

   "I learned most of my leadership skills from Kermit the Frog." Emmet O'Neil, CEO of StoryToys, is living proof that the most chaotic CVs often hide the most deliberate and creative minds. Uprooted from Dublin to rural Cork at age six, he channelled that childhood trauma straight into creativity — a habit that's never left him. A career as an illustrator was derailed by a rare degenerative eye condition, which, combined with a newborn on the way, pushed him reluctantly into management. What followed was a decade of digital transformation work across film, advertising and publishing before landing at StoryToys, where he took over from his own brother as CEO. His leadership philosophy? Largely borrowed from Kermit the Frog. His stance on AI? Cautiously optimistic — he's waiting for the hype bubble to burst before the genuinely useful tools emerge. His biggest bugbear? The myth that creatives can't do business, which he believes has enabled the exploitation of creative talent for centuries. Oh, and he's an award-winning pumpkin carver. LinkedIn will confirm.

3. 

   9 Jun 2026

   FSTVS - The Executive Sessions - Olexa Hewryk

   Today's guest, Olexa Hewryk, is Vice President and Head of Animation at Sesame Workshop. Starting his career as an animator, he has since directed, produced, and now oversees a broad portfolio of animated content — from Sesame Street itself to YouTube originals and Roblox activations. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, he's the recipient of four Daytime Emmy Awards and has shaped shows including Esme & Roy and Little Einsteins. Olexa's journey is rooted in a childhood love of cartoons at his grandparents' house and children's books (Curious George being his first obsession). At RISD he switched from illustration to animation after a winter session course revealed that animation combined everything he loved — children's books, theatre, and set design. A formative post-grad year in Kraków, Poland immersed him in Eastern European animation, whose slower storytelling pacing and dark absurdist humour has quietly influenced his work ever since. He speaks passionately about why preschool content matters and about Sesame Workshop's non-negotiable commitment to curriculum-driven content: "our goal is to create content that helps children become smarter, stronger and kinder." He's candid about AI, describing himself as personally curious but emphatic that it plays no part in current Workshop productions. "If kids are not enjoying the content, the curriculum is ineffectual."

Who has been a guest on FSTVS - The Executive Sessions

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Sueann Rochester
• Mary Coleman
• Neil Court

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 25 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

50

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

Contact FSTVS - The Executive Sessions

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.