Brown Bag Films Launches Bad Pencil Animation

Expanding into Prime-Time and New Genres

Brown Bag Films, the Academy Award®-nominated, Emmy® Award-winning animation studio, announced the launch of Bad Pencil Animation, a new label dedicated to producing prime-time animated content in new genres including comedy, horror, drama, and action aimed for more grown-up audiences.

Strategic Evolution

The launch comes as Brown Bag Films continues to strategically evolve its global studio offering, expanding beyond its preschool roots into a wider range of content and capabilities across its studios in Dublin, Toronto and Bali. Bad Pencil Animation will focus exclusively on service work, supporting global clients, studios, and creators to bring premium older-skewing animation projects to life.The launch comes as Brown Bag Films continues to strategically evolve its global studio offering, expanding beyond its preschool roots into a wider range of content and capabilities across its studios in Dublin, Toronto and Bali. Bad Pencil Animation will focus exclusively on service work, supporting global clients, studios, and creators to bring premium older-skewing animation projects to life.

Bad Pencil Leadership

Creative leadership for Bad Pencil Animation will come from Brown Bag Films Executive Creative Director Sanatan Suryavanshi, whose experience spans acclaimed animated features and series, including work on the Oscar-nominated The Breadwinner and the animated horror anthology Red Iron Road. Suryavanshi will report to Brown Bag Films Co-Founder and Group Creative Director Darragh O’Connell, who will provide senior creative oversight across the global team. Together, they will leverage Brown Bag Films’ established creative, production, and technical expertise.

Sales efforts will be led by Nicole Gibbs, VP, Studio Strategy at Brown Bag Films, whose remit spans the studio’s broader service business. Gibbs works closely with global partners, creators and clients, and has been with 9 Story Media Group and Brown Bag Films for six years following previous roles at Corus Entertainment. 

Caitlin Friedman, EVP, Global Production, Brown Bag Films & Current, Scholastic Entertainment, will lead the broader strategic direction for the label.

“Bad Pencil Animation is about creating space for a different kind of storytelling within Brown Bag Films,” said Suryavanshi. “There’s an incredible opportunity right now to push into new creative territory – stories that can be darker, more offbeat or more tonally diverse – while building on the same level of craft and quality the studio is known for. We already have the talent, craft and pipeline across our studios to support this kind of work at scale, across both 2D and CG, and Bad Pencil gives us a focused way to help our clients bring these stories to screen.”

“Brown Bag Films has always been driven by creativity and reinvention,” said Friedman. “With Bad Pencil Animation, we’re deliberately widening the lens – creating a home for projects that speak to older audiences, new partners and new platforms. Across our studios, we have an incredible depth of artistic and technical talent with experience spanning a broad range of styles and genres, and this initiative allows us to more fully leverage that capability in support of clients in this growing animation market.”

Bad Pencil Animation will officially debut at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where Brown Bag Films will introduce the new label to partners and showcase its creative direction, including a dedicated reel and new digital presence at www.badpencilanimation.com.

About Bad Pencil Animation

Bad Pencil Animation is a new label from Brown Bag Films focused on prime-time animation for older audiences. We partner with creators and studios around the world to deliver premium service work across 2D and CG – bringing stranger, darker and more offbeat stories for mature audiences to life. The label is backed by the global talent and production pipeline of Brown Bag Films across Dublin, Toronto and Bali. 

About Brown Bag Films

Brown Bag Films is a creative-led, global animation studio with locations in Dublin, Toronto and Bali. Founded in 1994, the studio is known for award-winning, artist-driven storytelling across television and digital formats, while actively expanding into new audiences and feature-length projects.