Studio PB&J
Studio PB&J, LLC. is a film, audio and publishing entity lead by veteran director, writer, and producer Barry Cook.
Check out our audio play The Happy Place on Audible. The paperback edition of The Happy Place novella, Barry’s children’s book The Gumdrop Ghost, and his newly released original stage play Last Banjo in Paris are available on Amazon.
BARRY COOK
Director/Writer/Producer
Barry Cook is a veteran filmmaker and animation director with more than forty years of experience in the entertainment industry.
He began his career at Hanna-Barbera Studios as an assistant animator on the pilot episode of The Smurfs. In the early 1980s, he joined Walt Disney Studios as an Effects Animator, contributing to major feature films including Tron, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.
In 1992, Barry made his directing debut with the groundbreaking CG short Off His Rockers, establishing himself as an early pioneer in computer animation. He continued refining his directing craft on the Disney/Amblin short Trail Mix-Up, starring Roger Rabbit.
Barry’s feature directorial debut came in 1998 with Disney’s Mulan, which became an instant classic. For his work on the film, he received the Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement for Feature Directing from the International Animated Film Society.
He went on to develop additional feature projects, including My Peoples for Disney (2003) and Mean Margaret for Starz Entertainment (2005). In 2008, LAIKA Entertainment engaged Barry as a development director, where he co-wrote the screenplay Jack & Ben.
In 2009, Barry joined Aardman Animations and co-directed the CG animated feature Arthur Christmas, released by Sony/Columbia Pictures in 2011.
His next feature, Walking with Dinosaurs (2013), produced by 20th Century Fox and BBC Earth, combined photo-realistic CG creature animation with live-action footage shot in remote locations across Alaska and New Zealand, creating a visually innovative cinematic experience.
For more than a decade, Barry collaborated as a creative lead on faith-based animated projects, including the short films My Last Day (2011), Legion (2019), and Chosen Witness (2021).
Through his own company, Studio PB&J, LLC, Barry continues to develop and produce original content across film, audio, stage, and publishing. His full-cast audio play The Happy Place was released in 2023, followed by a novella of the same title and the children’s book The Gumdrop Ghost. Most recently, he completed the comedic courtroom stage play Last Banjo in Paris. His original graphic novel The Cat & The Fiddle is currently in production!
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