by Gigi Johnson | Jan 19, 2023 | Blog, Creative Innovators Podcast
Mike Polis started and ended with animation and graphic novels and cool creative content. In between, he has run marketing for Yo Gabba Gabba, Jim Henson, and other adventures. Mike shares his stories of how he moved from desktop publishing after college to food marketing, to DVDs for Universal Studios, and into adventures with Kermit and other creative projects. He brings us to his present day, where he runs two types of organizations — one producing with creative brands and one now working with next-generation low-energy rendering systems. His stories are ones of finding unique opportunities from other people offering him a change in direction — and being ready to say yes to something new.

Guest: Michael R. Polis, CEO – Creator – Executive Producer, Atomic Toybox Entertainment, Inc.; Wild Hair Media – President; XetaOne – Partner
Michael Polis is an American producer, writer, and creator, of Puerto Rican descent, with a focus on science-fiction, fantasy, and family spaces. His specialty is in developing and creating intellectual property for television and film with a clear path to becoming entertainment brands realized in publishing, games, and consumer products.
Nominated for 4 Emmy Awards, he has developed and produced award-winning content for film (Mirrormask), television (Yo Gabba Gabba!, Kermit’s Swamp Years) live entertainment (Bear in the Big Blue House), and digital media (UMIGO) in addition to managing content development, and production for some of the world’s most celebrated brands and companies including Universal Studios, HBO, Baby Einstein, Nickelodeon, Disney, and The Jim Henson Company.
He also has extensive experience in digital and social media through Wild Hair Media, his digital media agency, and is a co-founder of Xeta One, a revolutionary technology company delivering the fastest, most compact, and energy-efficient servers on the planet.
Polis heads up his own independent production company, Atomic Toybox Entertainment, and is currently engaged with multiple projects with world-class partners including Ridley Scott’s, Scott Free Productions for a prime-time television series, a Halloween special with Bix Pix Entertainment, in addition to a distribution deal with international distributor Cake for an original property developed by Atomic.
In addition, Michael has acquired various intellectual properties including Captain Action, a world-renowned toy and collectible property, in addition to multiple properties from the former Fuel Entertainment library including content based on the toy line Chub City, the iTunes app BrOddcast and Sideway, the PlayStation network video game. He has also acquired film rights to reboot the “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes†film franchise.
Polis is also currently President of Wild Hair Media, a leading social media company that directs digital and social strategy for world-renowned brands, entertainers, musicians, and athletes principally on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Since Polis joined Wild Hair in 2014, the multi-million-dollar company has experienced a 3X growth in top-line revenue and 2 X EBITA.
Polis is the creator and Executive Producer of UMIGO – a cutting-edge transmedia property designed to teach today’s generation of digitally savvy children aged 5-8 years old math and literacy skills. Under Polis’ direction, the project was awarded a multi-year grant with the U.S. Department of Education for thirty-two million dollars.
Prior to 2013, Polis was CEO of Wildbrain Entertainment and EVP, of Branded Entertainment & Consumer Products at DHX Media. In addition to overseeing global development, production, distribution & digital operations for Wildbrain Entertainment, he led DHX Media’s international licensing activities. He also served as executive producer on key productions including “Yo Gabba Gabba!†for Nickelodeon in addition to projects for HBO, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Mattel. He was nominated in 2011, 2012 & 2013 for the Outstanding Pre-School Children’s Series Emmy.
Polis joined Wildbrain as the studio’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in June 2007. As CMO, Polis led and supervised unprecedented global marketing and licensing efforts on behalf of Wildbrain’s entertainment assets, including the groundbreaking series “Yo Gabba Gabba!†He developed product and brand licensing initiatives on behalf of the entire studio’s intellectual property.
Prior to joining Wildbrain in 2007, Polis served as Senior Vice President of Marketing Worldwide at The Jim Henson Company, overseeing global strategic marketing initiatives for the entire Henson library, including “The Muppets,†“Fraggle Rock†and “Labryrinth.†Polis received an Emmy nomination as an executive producer on “Kermit’s Swamp Years†and numerous awards and nominations as executive producer for the theatrically distributed film “MirrorMaskâ€. Before Henson, Polis was Executive Director of Marketing a Universal Home Entertainment, managing marketing and promotions of home entertainment titles such as “Babe, E.T.,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” and “The Land Before Time.”
Polis serves as a member of the executive committee for the Children’s Programming Peer Group and was a two-term Governor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is also a member of the Producer’s Guild of America’s new media group and a member of YPO Gold (Young President’s Organization) Pacific Coast Chapter.
Michael has a passion for creating projects in celebration of his Puerto Rican and Spanish heritage. He holds an M.B.A. from Northeastern University.
Links:
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by Gigi Johnson | Nov 28, 2022 | Blog, Creative Innovators Podcast
From photography to musician websites to Flash to now AR, Lafiya Watson Ramirez combines visual and experience creation with storytelling. She tells her own story about how she moved from photography to web and interactive design into being inspired by Pokemon Go to pursue Augmented Reality (AR) through Snap Studios and a residency there. She shares some of her projects and her ideas for future projects.
Guest: Multidisciplinary artist Lafiya Watson Ramirez
Lafiya Watson Ramirez is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in AR development, web development, graphic design, and photography. Her strength lies in combining her array of skills to produce unique digital content. Over the years, Lafiya has created websites for musicians, artists, and non-profit organizations. Her photographs of musicians have been featured on billboards, various publications, and television programs including on BET and PBS NewsHour. For eight years, Lafiya worked as the Coordinator of Electronic Media at Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts. She returned to freelancing in 2019 to pursue her latest passion, Augmented Reality. She was part of an artist residency program at Snapchat in 2020 and has since become a verified Snapchat developer. Lafiya has been a part of a few hackathons including MIT Reality Hack, 5th Wall Forum, and the Musical Theatre Factory XR Garage experience. She has also developed AR filters for clients, most notably for The Museum of the City of New York. Most recently, she worked on a proof of concept with artist and choreographer Koryn Wicks for a location based AR walk through LA’s Cobb Estate. Lafiya’s main focus is on creating engaging and interactive storytelling games and experiences, especially for use with wearable devices.Mentioned Links:
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by Gigi Johnson | Nov 17, 2022 | Blog, Creative Innovators Podcast
We are in post-production on new episodes, so our host, Gigi Johnson, shared a story about “Postcards” and Postcard Moments that has come up in prior episodes and in many recent conversations. She shares how a single postcard created a pivot that changed her direction when a TA offered the suggestion that she apply for USC Film School after a single class. She challenges us to explore “postcards” in our lives — both given and offered. She also suggests that postcards are all over past episodes, which we’ll call out with additional content in the future.
Mentioned:
- Happenstance Theory – Krumboltz, J. D. (2009). The Happenstance Learning Theory. Journal of Career Assessment, 17, 135-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072708328861
- Example article: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/careers/2019/04/30/how-planned-happenstance-can-help-your-career/
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by Gigi Johnson | Nov 3, 2022 | Blog, Creative Innovators Podcast
Bruno shares his saga from playing the drums and enjoying international music, mixing songs and culture from Tunisia, France, and LA. Those facets led to studying at UCLA Ethnomusicology, becoming a DJ at KCRW, and building a record label in his living room. He shared work in place-based music and compilation records, in building the sonic architecture of hotels, vacations, and clothing brands — creating soundtracks to vacations and lifestyles. His own independent label became his inspiration to work to streamlining the complexity of running a music label. His work in Filemaker Pro and Salesforce for his own company became the early stages of the 2015 go-to-market for Revelator. He became a “product guy,†helping labels in many regions with streaming music processing and accelerating catalog valuation and fractionalization processes. We closed with discussions from Web3 — moving from an information-based to a value-based Internet — and new types of marketplaces and tokenized economies that will go beyond what artists can do today.
Guest: Bruno Guez, Founder and CEO, Revelator
Founder of Revelator, and a former Director on the Board of Merlin Network, the leading music rights agency, Bruno Guez brings over twenty-five years of experience as a seasoned digital music executive working with Chris Blackwell’ Island Records and Guy Laliberte’s Cirque du Soleil. With a strong vision to retool the creative industry, Bruno saw the opportunity to provide a game-changing technology platform for global rights administration and royalty management using blockchain technology, with a goal of enabling efficient and fully transparent reporting, real-time payments and innovative revenue streams for rights owners, creators, artists, producers, and publishers around the world.Links:
- URL: revelator.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunoguez/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/brunoguez @brunoguez
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