Stephen Barnes graduated from Sheridan’s Animation Diploma program in 1990 with a particular love for storytelling and characterization. He animated on television series, commercials, and feature films at studios in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., taking on supervisory roles as his career progressed. While doing so, Stephen began teaching part-time at Sheridan, starting with the Special Problems in Film courses as part of the International Summer School of Animation program during the mid-1990s. Lectures have since taken him as far afield as Beijing and Medellín, and his love of teaching was cemented by earning his MA in Creative & Media Education from Bournemouth University, which led to a full-time position with Sheridan. Stephen has taught courses in the BA Animation and Post-Graduate Computer Animation programs and mentored third-year co-op students on one of his short film projects, Bird Brain.