Jozef Szekeres

Jozef Szekeres (born 4 July 1970) is an Australian artist, animator, writer, toy designer, sculptor, creative director and Arts Lecturer, and a director of the Black Mermaid Productions creative team based in Australia. He is best known for his doll creation Elizabet Bizelle launched through his company Jozef Szekeres Dolls, released in 2003. He was a finalist in the Australian Cartoonist Association Stanley Awards 2011, with nominations for Best Australian Illustrator and Australian Comic Book Artist.

He co-created and illustrated the comic book series ElfQuest – WaveDancers circa 1993–94, and is currently in production of a new comic book series called Elf-Fin:Hyfus & Tilaweed in collaboration with co-creator Julie Ditrich, using the original characters and concepts they created for the previous series. A preview was released April 2011, with a later edition released in May 2013.

Szekeres was born in Blacktown, Sydney, and grew up near Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW, graduating in 1988 from the Central Coast Grammar School in Erina, Central Coast. He attended the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the Music Composition School, but did not graduate. In 1989 he moved to the Sydney CBD to work at the Walt Disney Animation Australia Studio, now known as DisneyToon Studios, and was the youngest animator employed there at that time.

At Walt Disney Animation Australia, he was a principal animator on a series of films and TV series.

On Aladdin: The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves, he animated both Jasmine and Aladdin, creating reference maquettes of both characters. He did development work on Belle for Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas 2. On The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, he animated the Ariel, Melody and Prince Eric characters. On Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, he focused on human characters, such as the adult Wendy and the mermaids in Return to Never Land. He also sculpted a reference maquette of Wendy. His final work for DisneyToons Australia was on The Jungle Book 2 as senior animator on Shanti.

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