When Kris Wimberly finishes a long day of directing and developing animation at Disney TVA, he sits back with a nice cup of chai and starts working on his side project: running his own animation studio. Wimberly is Head of Creative and Co-Founder of Studio Smokescreen, an independent studio dedicated to bringing diversity and authenticity to the industry. While most major studios hire experienced workers, Studio Smokescreen describes itself as a “bridge studio” because it hires the untested, bridging the gap between these individuals and the professional roles they hope to attain.
Wimberly came up in the animation industry before most studio DEI programs existed. He credits his ability to break in and sustain a career to those who were willing to take a risk on him; now he wants to pay it forward.
He began with a podcast offering resources for building careers in animation—tips he wished he’d known starting out—but he itched for something more hands-on. “Nobody was actually doing anything,” he says. So much of industry mentorship looked like lectures and Q&A sessions, but Wimberly found that the most powerful learning came from on-the-job training. And in an industry where entry-level jobs often require prior experience, the people who need that training most can’t get it.
Enter: Studio Smokescreen. Wimberly always wanted to run his own studio, and during the pandemic, he realized he finally had the career resources and time to do so. So, he and his brother, Chase Wimberly, who serves as Head of Operations, got to work. In many ways, Studio Smokescreen functions like other studios. Sometimes, they’re hired as part of a larger project to do boards, character design, or background art. They also develop entire projects independently as well as with partner companies. But once production begins, Studio Smokescreen diverges from the typical path.
“How am I going to reverse hundreds of years of systemic issues with my tiny studio? I don’t know… But I know I can try by actually doing something.”
For leadership positions, Wimberly offers opportunities to beginners as well as industry veterans who for one reason or another have not had a chance at a supervising role, helping them take their first strides into managing others. Where most studios look for experience, Wimberly looks for personal connection to the project.
“There’s an abundance of talent and skill out there,” he says. “That’s the easy part.” Instead, he digs deeper, looking for the authenticity that each staff member can bring to the material and building conversations about personal background into the hiring process. As an example, Wimberly cites a project that had a prison storyline. The Production Manager had a family member who worked in the prison system, so she brought unique and thoughtful nuance to the material.
The most common argument against bringing on inexperienced talent is the extra labor built in. Someone will need to teach them new skills; someone will need to check their work. But Wimberly argues that that’s part of the job, and he makes sure the leaders he hires feel that way, too. Studio Smokescreen’s “secret formula” is all about thinking ahead and building in time and production costs to account for necessary training. Wimberly believes the authentic storytelling gained is worth the effort.
It helps that Studio Smokescreen is selective about its projects. “Ultimately, it starts with an internal belief that stories are for everyone… it helps us choose which partners we’d like to work with,” says Wimberly. Though they take on a variety of projects across the industry—everything from TV animation to short-form content for pro-social campaigns like CalHOPE—Wimberly seeks stories that push the needle and prioritize representation both on-screen and behind it.
Ultimately, Wimberly wants Studio Smokescreen to model a new direction for the industry. “How am I going to reverse hundreds of years of systemic issues with my tiny studio? I don’t know,” he says. “But I know I can try by actually doing something.” As he rises in his own career—he’s a director on Disney TVA’s Firebuds and is also developing his own original series at the studio—he hopes to bring some of the Studio Smokescreen mindset (and workers) along with him.
Because it’s not easy working at a studio during the day and running one at night, Wimberly practices compartmentalization and “kill time” to balance it all. He gives himself a block of time to work on a task, and when time’s up, he’s done, regardless of whether the task is complete. He knows he can always come back and finish it during the next block of time. This way, he can truly relax with his beloved cup of chai. Like with Studio Smokescreen, he developed the recipe himself by pulling what worked from established sources, then adding a unique blend of spices that is entirely his own.
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