Mike Cachuela 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. They launched with the world-changing Toy Story.

Mike continued doing ground-breaking animation work, storyboarding, directing and planning for a series of incredible movies, including James and the 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 developed his own projects, including recent work with conservation legend Julia Butterfly Hill.