Jerry Popowich

Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer,
Mercury Filmworks
Animation – Class of 1992

Jerry Popowich still recalls the day his high school guidance counsellor said animation was hardly a realistic career option and advised him to take a job in Thunder Bay’s paper mill. “I worked there for eight years,” Popowich says, “but I never gave up the dream.”

Today, Popowich is the Chief Creative Officer and one of the managing partners in Canada’s most recognized independent animation company, Mercury Filmworks. During his career he has played a key role in many of the most memorable modern animated television properties including Tangled, Mickey Mouse Shorts, Lion Guard, Wander Over Yonder, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Jake & the Neverland Pirates, Fish Hooks, Toot & Puddle, Jimmy Two Shoes, Gerald McBoing Boing, The Simpsons, Woody Woodpecker, Undergrads, The Never Ending Story, and Pink Panther.

In his roles as either an artist or a studio executive, his work has garnered almost every television animation nomination or award in North America including Emmy’s, Annies, and Pixies. As a former Algonquin College graduate he has also been honoured with a place in the Algonquin College Hall of Fame.