May 10, 2023

Phil Linda Joins The Pokémon Company as Director of Original Animation

Phil Linda has been named Director of Original Animation for The Pokémon Company International.

Linda announced his appointment on Linkedin, explaining that his duties will cover original Pokémon TV series, movies, and short-form content. Whatever he does with Pokémon, there will be no human Ash, the longtime protagonist of the Pokémon series, who appeared in the last episode last December.In March, the official Pokémon Youtube channel released a teaser for the animated series, the first of the Post-Ash era, which released to the public.

Based in Los Angeles, Rynda previously worked for Netflix, where he served as creative leadership and development director for original animation Netflix has a good relationship with The Pokémon Company, distributing several animated movies and series. Netflix will also be distributing the stop-motion series "Pokémon Concierge."

Last year, Netflix laid off Rynda and some of his staff following the release of its first quarter results.

Before moving into management, Rynda started out as an artist and won a Primetime Emmy for his work on Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure. He has had key creative roles in some of the biggest animated series of the past few decades, including "Gravity Falls" and "Adventure Time," and was a character designer on "Chowder," "Billy and Mandy's Grim Adventures," "The Venture Bros." and "The Lego Movie. The Lego Movie.

As an executive, Linda served as Vice President of Development at Nickelodeon and was heavily involved in the network's Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As creative director of comedy shorts/pilots for Cartoon Network, Linda was involved in the development of projects such as Steven Universe, Clarence, Over the Garden Wall, We Bare Bears, and OK K.O.!

Watch an interview with Linda by Cartoon Brew about her shift from artist to management work in the industry: