What is michael woolen?
Michael Woolen is a British and Australian writer and director. He has written on many of the most popular children’s series of recent years namely “Moshi Monsters” and “The Amazing World of Gumball”. His creative works have earned him 3 BAFTA nominations, a Kids Choice Awards win, 4 Emmy nominations and a Writers’ Guild of Great Britain nomination.
Michael was born to an Irish mother in London but grew up in Sydney, Australia where he attended high school at Belmont High School. He would later be accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts to study Film and Television, graduating with a Bachelor of Film and Television.
Career beginnings:
After graduating from college in 2001, he began his career by working on children’s television. He wrote for various kids TV shows in Australia for two years before moving to London in 2003 to work as a staff writer for “Teletubbies”. He would continue working on other popular children’s series like “Daytime” and “Tots TV” over the next few years before being approached by Ragdoll Productions to work on their new children’s show called “Moshi Monsters”, created by his friends Michael Acton Smith and Andrew Duff. “Moshi Monsters” quickly went on to become the most watched kids show on CBBC and was later aired in the United States on Nickelodeon.
Michael working as the show’s executive producer and writer:
After the success of “Moshi Monsters”, Michael moved on to work with “The Amazing World of Gumball” another Ragdoll production. This time he would be solely in charge of the show’s production, writing, directing and producing it successfully with his new company called VRG Productions, which he also owns. The series is currently being aired in more than 100 countries across the globe with over 60 different territories airing it simultaneously every day. It has also had over 2,000 online games created by fans.
The series has been nominated for multiple awards including; an Emmy, a BAFTA and was the winner of Kids Choice Awards in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, it was nominated once again for a BAFTA and is due to air in North America on Cartoon Network later this year.
Personal life:
As well as his successful career, Michael has also had a great deal of further personal success. When he was 18 years old he won the Australian Film Institute Award for most promising new director for the short film “Herr Rydman’s Press Conference” in which he also acted. He again would be nominated for this award at the age of 20 for another short called “The Walk”.
He is now happily married to an American woman named Gina who later moved to London with him and they have two sons together named Jack and Harry Woolen. The family are currently living in South London, UK where Michael continues to work on his various projects.
Continued success:
Seeing success in the UK and Australia, Michael Woolen has now created his own company with the intention of expanding further. His first enterprise has been set up in the US with a leading platform for children’s content called “Gumball Network”. This is predicted by him to be soon followed by other companies from all over the world.
Michael’s next project is an animated TV series based on the popular comic “The Amazing World of Gumball” which he is writing and directing at the moment. The purpose of this company is to create a new platform for children’s content that will be shared everywhere online and all over the world, much like Netflix for kids.
Other projects:
Alongside his work in television, Michael has also worked on other successful films such as “The Tall Guy”, “Truly, Madly, Deeply” and most recently “Killing Hasselhoff”, all of which have received cinema releases. He has also just completed another short film called “The Genie” with his production company VRG Productions set to release later this year.
What are the benefits?
Michael Woolen has enjoyed continued success in a growing industry. He has been particularly successful in creating new children’s shows and has had several programmes air on Cartoon Network as well as Nickelodeon and Disney Channel.
He is also an inspiration to upcoming writers and directors as he started out in the same position they are now hoping to be in and still went on to have a successful career. He can therefore offer advice on how he reached the top, how he worked his way up from relatively small beginnings and the best ways of making it in the industry.
What are the drawbacks?
As with many writers, Michael Woolen does sometimes have to rely on others to complete his projects for him. Therefore he may not have a fully developed idea for every project, however if it is still important to him, he can ensure that it is completed as well as possible.
Michael Woolen also has a family life which requires extra time away from work but can be made easier by delegating work to others. This part of the industry can be quite hard and sometimes the writer has no choice but to drop everything to stay home with their children.
