John Holderried
Global Research Coordinator

By all rights, John should have foreseen a career in animation.

Born in Westwood, MA and raised on a steady diet of after-school cartoons, John's Catholic upbringing meant that the only films available to him until age 10 were Disney films.  He had a hand-held cartoon viewer which he watched forwards, backwards, in slow-motion and frame-by-frame until he understood how the animation worked.  He also developed vocal impressions at an early age, with his mother predicting he would be the next Rich Little.

In high-school he participated in school and community theatre groups, which led to a sideline interest in making videotaped versions of the stage plays.  This gave him the idea that he might be cut out to make his own films.  After graduation he headed for NYU, and hit the streets of New York at the age of 17.

"Everyone goes into film school thinking they're going to be a director," says John.  "One of the things that film school taught me was that I wasn't cut out for that."  Courses in producing as well as animation helped him see the other opportunities in the industry.

John took an internship at Sanborn Perillo & Co., a downtown production company known for music videos and Sesame St. segments that mixed live-action with post-production effects.  After several semesters as a production assistant and office assistant, he was offered a staff position, and eventually became office manager and production manager there.  "It was a lot of work, but great experience - I got to work on projects with Leon Redbone, Dr. John, Rick James, En Vogue, Penn & Teller and several of the Muppets."

John first came to Ice Tea Productions to earn a few extra dollars stuffing envelopes and delivering ViewMasters.  He then became an office assistant, and now works as Global Research Coordinator.  The projects he spends the most time on are a database of all key ad agency employees in the U.S., and a database of animated commercials seen on TV dating back to 1998.  "Of course, the files are cross-referenced," says John. "My German heritage demands that everything be properly organized."

John has managed to keep one foot in the world of animation production - he has been associate producer on 3 feature films directed by Bill Plympton - "I Married a Strange Person", "Mutant Aliens", and "Hair High".  He has also performed several different voices in these films, so his mother's prediction came partially true.

What little spare time John has, he spends in Brooklyn with his wife Michele and their cats Merlin and Gypsy.  His goal is to be a contestant on Jeopardy!