Suffolk animator on turning drawing passion into career

BBC News

25-05-2025

As a child, Will Lloyd-Cook loved to draw Marvel Comic characters, and as an adult, he has turned that passion into an award-winning career.The 35-year-old grew up in Lowestoft, Suffolk, before going to the University of Hertfordshire to study digital animation.He has become an animation series director and worked on successful children's shows including The Adventures of Paddington Bear, Alphablocks and Digby Dragon.Mr Lloyd-Cook, who recently became a dad, wants to create shows for his daughter while also inspiring the next generation.
Mr Lloyd-Cook attended the former Kirkley High School, now East Points Academy, in Lowestoft, and discovered he enjoyed drawing. He later attended Lowestoft College where one evening he flipped a coin and decided to study digital animation."I had very hard working lecturers that I owe my career to," he said."Before I went to university I didn't know any names of the software, I didn't know anything about animation."
Mr Lloyd-Cook actually dropped out of his university course early to take up a job, but he took time out of work to make sure he graduated in 2011.His first role was an animation fixer for Blue Zoo Animation Studio on the show Tree Fu Tom, where he specialised in the animation of the characters' clothing."Before I knew it, not only was I doing skirts and wings, but then I was getting my own shots to animate, my own sequences, then I was getting my own scenes," he continued."It just snowballed from there where it became a two-week temporary job to now 14 years in the industry."
In 2019, Mr Lloyd-Cook was part of the Bafta award winning team that worked on the show Numberblocks and during the pandemic he was a part of the Emmy award winning team for The Adventures of Paddington. Both were stand out moments, as was directing the show Alphablocks and creating the Netflix show Big Tree City through lockdown."I'm incredibly proud of how we managed to adapt and get a well made series from changing the way in which we worked," he said on that Netflix show.
'Giving back'
The artist takes time out of work to speak in schools and for students at his old university."I like giving back to what made me," he continued."It's also fun and it puts things into perspective because those kids you talk to, in the future they want your job and you have to stay one step ahead of them."It makes you appreciate where you are and where you came from when you see these hungry students who want to get into the industry."They inspire me to be better and hopefully they get a little bit of inspiration from me as well."
Mr Lloyd-Cook also ensures his daughter is always at the forefront of his mind while working."Whenever I make anything I always think of her," he said."I like to work on shows aimed at her that she'll watch as she grows up."So I'm quite happy in the pre-school area, but the older she gets I'd like to make content for that age group so she can enjoy the stuff that I'm making."
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