Hi, I’m Frank Rocco, and contrary to popular belief, I’m a real person and not one of my own cartoon creations. I’ve been a director, producer, writer and designer/illustrator for television animation and special effects, children’s and corporate multimedia,  comics, children’s books and other print.  

I’m a native New Yorker and ex-subway graffiti artist, attended the High School of Art & Design and started my career in animation in 1977 at Ovation Films.  This soon led to a job as a staff artist at Archie Comics, and to freelancing in New York’s advertising, commercial and animation studios. After a few years of this, I relocated to Los Angeles to work on motion control effects for JAWS 3-D.  I continued as a freelance graphic designer and effects technician before co-founding the special effects company, Monumental Pictures, where we produced rock videos, commercials and film effects for such luminaries as Richard Pryor, Columbia Pictures, Talking Heads, X, GTE, Seven-Up and IMAX Theaters.

In 1986 I once again pursued character animation, development and design, providing services ranging from animating on the feature, "The Chipmunk Adventure," to storyboarding and designing characters, props and BGs for TV animation. In 1988 I landed at Murakami Wolf Swenson, and during my 5 years as Creative Director/Art Director/Character Designer there, I was responsible for creative development and design of more than 200 half hours of television animation, most prominently the highly successful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show.

From 1993-’97 I was a principal in a company developing and producing/directing interactive entertainment, animated series, and holiday specials. I art directed Alvin and the Chipmunk holiday specials, and was responsible for creative and technical production of Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter CD-ROM’s, “Just Me and My Dad” and “Just Me and My Mom,”  from initial design sketches to final art, audio production to computer authoring and Lingo programming.

As a freelance illustrator and graphic designer, I’ve worked in character licensing, merchandising and advertising, designed video cassette covers, trading cards, apparel, style guides and comic books, as well as continuing to design shows for MWS Inc., Hanna-Barbera, Ruby/Spears, DIC Entertainment, and others.

Recent clients include Nickelodeon, Starz Media, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Warner Online, Walt Disney Records, Xerox, MRM Marketing (Japan), Sun Woo Productions (Korea), Live Home Video, Mercer Mayer, GT Interactive and McGraw-Hill.  For Walt Disney Records I designed, illustrated and programmed the engine for a series of multimedia CD Read-Along titles, which included “Monsters Inc. CD Read-Along ”, “Lilo & Stich CD Read-Along,” and many others. Other multimedia projects include, Mercer Mayer’s Little Monster in “The Mummy Mystery” interactive CD-ROM, and corporate CD-ROMs and web development for Xerox and ContentGuard. Print jobs included McGraw-Hill’s Spectrum Series Workbooks K-2 Math, Reading and Phonics, and illustration for a series of first readers featuring Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter.

I’ve recently completed a 3 & 1/2 year stint working at Nickelodeon as a designer and illustrator, designing title cards, magazine covers, comics, press art and props for Nickelodeon’s "Fairly Odd Parents" and "Danny Phantom" series.

I’m currently a Creative Director and Head Designer for the Starz Media/Nick Jr. show “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” where I not only contribute to the look of the show, but continue to be involved in the story development of episodes, from premise through storyboard pitches. I’ve also written scripts, as well as, a song for the show.