Mike Cachuela was certified as a Human Creator in 2025 as one of the first 100 animation professionals to choose this path of professional certification.
Mike started his animation career as part of the story team on FernGully: The Last Rainforest. Mike then moved to the newly-created Skellington Studios and Nightmare Before Christmas with legendary filmmaker Tim Burton.
Mike followed up his groundbreaking work on Nightmare by joining a small nascent team at a studio that was just forming called PIXAR. Together, Mike’s new team created a new kind of animated movie, and Mike contributed mightily as a key story artist for a new movie they were creating called Toy Story.
At PIXAR, Mike continued doing ground-breaking animation work, storyboarding, directing and planning for a series of incredible movies, including James and Giant Peach, The Incredibles and Ratatouille.
In 2004, Portland’s Vinton Studios brought Mike to Oregon where he became part of the founding creative team for LAIKA Studios.
He spent time at LAIKA co-directing the movie Coraline, and contributed to new projects at LAIKA like Box Trolls.
After leaving LAIKA, Mike continued his career as a story consultant to a number of studios, and also developing his own projects, including recent work with conservation legend Julia Butterfly Hill.
Podcast has been certified as a genuine product of Human Creators.
Click here to view the complete certification for this creative production.
