ED HOOKS, a theatre professional for three decades, pioneered acting training specifically for animators instead of stage actors. His books, “Acting for Animators” and “Acting in Animation: A Look at 12 Films” are standard texts at animation schools all over the world, and he is in demand as a guest lecturer.

2001 – Present

• Professional level acting workshops (for actors)
• Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto, California and, currently, in Chicago, Illinois

Acting for Animators Workshops:

• Communication University of China – Aniwow! 2009
• Centre National D’Animation Et De Design (Montreal)
• Animex International Festival of Animation & Computer Games, University of Teesside, UK (eight consecutive years)
• SIGGRAPH (Los Angeles, California) twice
• Game Developer’s Convention (San Jose, California)
• Swansea Animation Days
• Swansea Institute, Swansea, S. Wales (7 consecutive years)
• Catholic University (Porto, Portugal)
• Griffith Film School, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia)
• College of Creative Studies (Detroit, Michigan)
• Cadritech Computacao (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
• CGCG (Taipei Taiwan)
• Asia Media Makers (Singapore)
• Red Stick Animation Festival (Baton Rouge, Louisana)
• Vancouver Film School (Vancouver, Canada)
• Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design (Vancouver, Canada)
• Film Academy Baden Wurtemburg (Ludwigsburg, Germany)
• Full Sail Real World Education (Winter Park, Florida)
• FMX Animation Festival (Stuttgart, Germany) Board of Advisors, eight consecutive years
• Ohio State University
• Ringling School of Animation (Florida)
• Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, California)
• Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne, Australia)
• Angel Studios (Carlsbad, California)
• Animal Logic (Sydney, Australia)
• Artificial Mind and Movement (Montreal, Canada)
• BioWare Corp. (Edmonton, Canada)
• Big Idea (Lombard, Illinois)
• Black Rock Games (London)
• Electronic Arts (Stockholm)
• Jilin 2009 Game and Animation Forum (Changchun China)
• Epic Games (Cary, North Carolina)
• Escape Factory (Seattle, Washington)
• Grin Games (Barcelona, Spain)
• Microsoft Games (Seattle, Washington)
• Mondo Media (San Francisco, California)
• Scanline Productions (Munich, Germany)
• Sony Games (San Diego, California and London)
• Traveller’s Tales Games (Knutsford, UK)
• Blizzard Entertainment (Irvine, California)
• Lucas Learning (San Raphael, California)
• Midway Games (Chicago, Illinois)
• Tippett Studio (Berkeley, California)
• Ubisoft (Montreal, Canada)
• Ubisoft (Shanghai China)
• Valve Software (Bellevue, Washington)
• Volition Games (Champaign, Illinois)
• Walt Disney Studios (Los Angeles, Sydney Australia, Orlando Florida)
• Blue Sky Studios (White Plains, New York)

1996 – 2000

• Filmakademie Baden Wurtemburg (Ludwigsburg, Germany)
• Hochschule fur Fernsehen und Film Munchen (Potsdam, Germany)
• PDI/DreamWorks (Palo Alto, California)
• Mondo Media (San Francisco, California)
• Wild Brain (San Francisco, California)
• Northwest Academy (Portland, Oregon)

PUBLICATIONS/BOOKS (AUTHOR)

• Acting for Animators, second edition 2004, Heinemann Publishing
• Acting in Animation (A Look at 12 Films), 2008 Heinemann Publishing
• The Actor’s Field Guide (Acting Notes on the Run), 2007, Watson Guptill/Backstage Books
• Acting Strategies for the Cyber Age, 2005, Heinemann Publishing
• The Audition Book (Winning Strategies for Breaking into Theatre, Film and Television), first edition1989, second edition revised 2005, Watson-Guptill/Backstage Publications
• The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook, first edition 2001, second edition revised 2007, Watson-Guptill/Backstage Publications

Articles

• American Theatre Magazine (“Teaching Ants to Act” 1999)
• Game Developer’s Magazine (“Chasing Gollum” 2003)
• Millimeter Magazine (“Acting for Animators” 2000)

1969 – 1995

• Professional Actor, member of Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Actors Equity Association
• New York, Los Angeles
• 40+ stage plays
• 100+ television shows
• 150+ television commercials
• 50+ radio commercials

Education

• American University, Washington, D.C. 1967
• University of Maryland 1964-1966
• American Academy of Dramatic Arts 1969-1970