Nassos Vakalis

Nassos Vakalis (Greek: Νάσος Βακάλης) is an animation director and animator.

Nassos (Athanassios) Vakalis was born and raised in Athens, Greece. Since childhood, he demonstrated an interest in art, submitting his early work in various contests and winning numerous prizes and distinctions.

During adolescence Nassos’ interest turned toward character animation. He got his start working as a cartoon and graphics artist for several advertising agencies and small studios in Athens and later pursued his studies in art and animation in the United States. Nassos attended the Department of Film and Video at Pratt Institute, New York and acquired his B.F.A. in Fine Arts, majoring in Character Animation from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California. During his senior year at college, Nassos participated in the Short Film Festival of Drama Greece where he premiered his animated debut film Don’t Feed the Bear. This film attracted the attention of legendary animation director Don Bluth, who offered Nassos a permanent position with his company.

In Sullivan-Bluth Studios, Nassos began as an animation assistant but scant weeks later he was promoted to an animator. In that position he completed the production of the films Rock-a-Doodle, A Troll in Central Park and Thumbelina, developing his talent and skills under real production conditions and requirements. Soon after he became Supervising Animator for the film The Swan Princess for Rich Entertainment and simultaneously worked freelance on many advertising spots, shorts and other feature films.

In 1995, when Warner Bros. opened its new animation studios in Los Angeles, he became Supervising Animator and he was assigned to design and animate “Kayley”, the lead character in the feature animated film Quest for Camelot. During his career at Warner Bros., Nassos explored story, storyboarding and conceptual development and was involved with the pre-production of many projects the studio had in development at the time.

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