Faculty Bio

Matt Sheridan Assistant Arts Professor Tisch Asia

Courses

History of Animation
Traditional Forms of Animation
From Phones to Theme Parks
Animation Topics: Children Animation

Biography

Matt Sheridan makes animation for multi-channel installation and cinematic presentation. While working for MTV, Nickelodeon and the NBA, he also taught animation at NYU, SVA and Pratt Institute.  Matt worked as a storyboard artist for various commercials, Beavis and Butt-Head, Daria, The Head and Celebrity Deathmatch; he directed ten episodes of Blue's Clues and internet animation production at Heavy.com as he made films in his off-time.  His independently produced work has been shown in the USA, the UK, Brazil, Iran, the Netherlands and France via broadcast, festival screenings, and installation in a diversity of venues from Centre Pompidou in Paris to the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro; the Rio Video Wall in Atlanta and the Santa Monica Pier in California.  

In 2005 one of his undergraduate thesis students won a Silver Medal Student Academy Award; many of his other students have gone on to work for Nickelodeon, Scholastic, Sundance Channel, Dreamworks Animation, and Blue Sky, among many others.  Matt received his BA in Film and Television from NYU and his MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.  He resides in Los Angeles with his wife Lynne and cat Henry.

Short Statement
My teaching philosophy is simple: overload students with information while encouraging them to transform it into valuable meaning through experience.  This experience may be from life, research, the act of making animation, or all at once.  Whether their concepts end up as cinematic stories, web portals, cellphone apps, or multi-channel video installations is up to the students, at which point our technological expertise comes in handy.  My goal is to illuminate directions and interrogate ideas in the interest of inspiring artists of the future to generate innovative animation designed to challenge themselves and our larger world.  Tisch School of the Arts Asia is the most state-of-the-art, multi-cultural, stimulating environment in which to have that conversation.