Canadian studio Huminah Huminah Animation has promoted Steve Cooke to VP of production and operations, a newly created role that signals the company’s intention to focus on originals.

Cooke, who joined the Nova Scotia-based prodco in November 2022 as head of production, will now shoulder more responsibility for overseeing production workflow, as well as company operations. 

Huminah currently specializes in animation service work, and has series like Chloe’s Closet (Moonscoop Entertainment) and Nate is Late (Watch Next Media) on its credit list. The company has been laying the groundwork for an expansion into original content creation, starting with hiring Lynn Chadwick in 2021 as its first-ever VP of content and sales.

CEO Adam Mimnagh says a new CCO will be announced later this month to spearhead the next phase of this originals push by overseeing the development of several new in-house projects. 

Cooke brings more than two decades of experience to his new role and is adept at “identifying new talent, building teams and managing multiple productions,” according to a release. He previously worked for 15 years at WildBrain (2004 to 2019), where he supervised CG animation on shows such as the Inspector Gadget reboot and Fireman Sam. And his most recent stint before joining Huminah was as a studio general manager at Island of Misfits (Toof & Doof).