RHEA BORZAK.HEAD OF PRODUCTION  |  RICKEY BOYD.CREATIVE DIRECTOR  | JAMES COAKLEY.CG SUPERVISOR  |  DON CULWELL.CO-FOUNDER  |  GP GALLE JR.CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER  |  JOËL GIBBS.CREATIVE LEAD  |  MIKE HALSEY.FOUNDER  |  MICHAEL LAPINSKI.ART DIRECTOR  |  APRIL LAWRENCE.PRODUCER  |  RANDALL SABA.PRODUCER   

Rhea Borzak is a veteran artist, producer, and multiple Emmy award-winner, whose experience spans 35 years, 17 of those years being at Magnetic Dreams. After graduating from Auburn University, Borzak landed work in Atlanta with Jackson Bost, the agency responsible for producing key logos for CNN and BET, then served on the inaugural art team for the Weather Channel, and, after moving to Nashville, is a winner of the national Broadcast Designers Association Gold Award. Her work at Magnetic Dreams spans thousands of jobs for clients including Crayola, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, Warner Brothers, Coca Cola, Chick Fil A, and more. Borzak now serves as Head of Production, providing her expert knowledge to the capable team of veteran producers dedicated to excellence and timely delivery. 

Rickey Boyd.Creative Director

Rickey Boyd’s 25+ year career includes extensive experience as a puppeteer, animation director, and designer. His work at Magnetic Dreams merges his love of both puppetry and animation. As a performer, he had the honor of joining and working alongside his childhood legend Jim Henson and the Muppet Performers on a wide array of projects ranging from Sesame Street to Ninja Turtles 1 and 2, Disney/Henson's Dinosaurs (the Series), Muppets from Space, Animal Jam and Muppet Wizard of Oz. After a stint as a lead performer for TNN's (The Nashville Network) Tightline and Sinker puppet fishing duo, he joined Magnetic Dreams. Over the past 17 years he has lead our talented team on adventures with Elmo, Big Bird and friends for Sesame Workshop, along with other characters for HBO, The Jim Henson Company, Nickelodeon and others. The Magnetic team won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Effects for its work on Elmo the Musical under his direction. Rickey continues his work at Magnetic drawing and playing with dummies.

James Coakley.CG Supervisor

The first hire at Magnetic, Coakley is one of the most experienced animators working today. 20+ years ago, fascinated with the game Doom and studying computer graphics in college, Coakley happened upon Mike Halsey and Don Culwell, who were still working out of Magnetic Dreams’ garage facility. Since that time, Coakley’s animation can be seen across nearly every 3D project Magnetic Dreams has produced. This includes work for major companies such as Dell, Crayola, Coca Cola, Chick-fil-A, Sesame Street, Marvel, and Nickelodeon. With over 20 years in animation, Coakley’s understanding of the process is something few can claim, and his work ethic and dedication assuring job delivery is the stuff of legend. Currently Coakley runs the animation team at Magnetic assuring timely delivery for the producers.

Don Culwell.Co-Founder

In his early teens, Don Culwell was captivated by movies like Star Wars and companies like Industrial Light and Magic. He began working small graphics jobs and at age 16 met Mike Halsey at a mutual client’s office. Within the next few years they joined forces. Quickly taking to 3D, for the next 20+ years Culwell would take part in groundbreaking productions as co-founder of Magnetic Dreams. Culwell’s experience and vast portfolio has a breadth difficult to match. At 21 his 3D art landed on the cover for Post Magazine, and this steady stream of great work continued afterward for Dell, Electronic Arts, Coca Cola, Crayola, Nickelodeon, Marvel, and many more. Notably, Don’s art direction contributed to Taylor Swift’s iconic music video Fifteen, which was nominated for an MTV Music Award for Best Video of the Year. Don currently serves as principal and co-founder at Magnetic Dreams, and, as an expert in animation and effects, leads production and the company from a visionary, artistic, and technical standpoint, all the while maintaining his team before the captain attitude.

GP Galle Jr.CHIEF Operating Officer

Galle’s experience spans 15+ years bridging business and creative entities. He is an entrepreneur proven to generate and execute ideas with multi-million budgets, managing large-scale teams and creative projects starting from scratch. These projects began when Galle started as marketing director turned C.O.O. of the UFL Foundation, where he ran several large-scale outreach and fundraising projects, building, and managing teams. The foundation would greenlight Galle's underwritten production, A Dream Worth Living, a 40 minute stage play fusing of Broadway Music, Silent Film, and Live Production to promote and fundraise for the Foundation's outreach projects. Galle then produced vivace, a live event made to bring people together for the arts. For vivace, Afterward Galle conceived, produced, and then completed Yellow Day, a feature film based around stories from his community (available on Amazon Prime and distributed into Wal-Mart). Galle is now working to help organize, grow, and build Magnetic Dreams. Galle graduated Magna Cum Laude from Auburn University (English and with a theater Scholarship), and continued as he completed law school (J.D. University of Alabama).  

Joël Gibbs.Creative Lead

A native of France with nearly 15 years in the creative industry and 10+ years at Magnetic Dreams, Joël Gibbs has a dual Masters in Art and Production Creation from Université de Haute Bretagne Rennes 2. Upon graduation, Gibbs was hired at Magnetic Dreams and has been producing some of the company’s best content since. Not just a project leader but also an expert compositor, Gibbs’ creative vision can be seen across a multitude of projects for Dell, Marvel, Samsung, Nickelodeon, Chick-fil-A, and more. While at Magnetic, Gibbs directed both the Thor and Loki and Iron Man Extremis motion comics, a total of 130 minutes for Marvel. These long form narratives remain enormously popular as streaming content today on Netflix. Gibbs is known for his versatility across various artistic styles, knowledge of multiple software packages, and innate creativity.

Mike Halsey.Founder

As founder and principal, Mike is a multiple Emmy Award winner. Along with partner Don Culwell, he is responsible for final decision-making at Magnetic. Mike is a literal pioneer of the 3D industry. In the course of his 26 years at Magnetic Dreams’ helm he has put together top talent, built and fostered award-winning projects, and has provided Nashville with one of the oldest animation houses in the country--all starting out of his garage. Halsey turned this animation studio into one with direct contacts at the highest industry level, and prizes the many long-term professional relationships built on mutual respect. Halsey has maintained an award-winning team throughout the years, some of it hired, much of it grown from the beginning. He continues the day to day managing of accounts and occasionally turns an animation or two.

MIchael Lapinski.Art Director

A New Jersey native and Rutgers graduate, Michael Lapinski has worked for over 20 years in some of the most well-known animation houses in the world. Lapinski’s artistic talent is a balance of creative and analytical approach to the craft, and he a master of multiple artistic styles. These rare attributes allow Lapinski to approach projects from a scope broader than just an artist, but also one who can govern creative vision. This same experience has had him working on as broad and diverse projects as the creator-driven reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Lead Designer for several seasons on Blues Clues. At Magnetic Dreams, Lapinski has played a critical role in some of the company’s best work, such as the Emmy-award winning Elmo the Musical, recent pilot work for Jim Henson Productions, trailer work for Valiant and music videos for Warner Brothers. 

April Lawrence.Producer

Lawrence is the latest addition to the Magnetic Dreams team. A Wisconsin native, Lawrence moved to Hollywood in 2001 and soon after started at Dreamworks Feature Animation where she stayed active for over 14 years. Having served most recently as Production Manager at DreamWorks, April helped supervise some of the most popular productions in entertainment history. She brings with her a deep knowledge and vast experience in Producing projects of all shapes and sizes from some of the highest levels and most iconic brands. Her list of credits include How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek 4, Kung Fu Panda 1 & 3, and many more. With her recent relocation to Nashville, Magnetic Dreams is ecstatic to have Lawrence on board. At Magnetic Dreams, Lawrence will be acting as producer on all projects, focusing on logistical coordination, schedule, team welfare, and assuring deadlines are met within budget. Lawrence’s goal is to facilitate getting the best creative on screen possible within necessary timeline and budget.

Randall Saba.Producer

One of those rare second generation Hollywood natives, Saba began his career in the art department of the historic Tower Records’ flagship store on the Sunset Strip (literally a staple in pop culture lore - see the movie Empire Records). This work and his subsequent beating of the pavement led to getting his first job in animation at HBO’s animation house, where he worked on productions such as Todd McFarlane’s Spawn and Ralph Bakshi’s Spicy City. Saba then moved to Nickelodeon, where he would spend the next 16 years. During this time Saba worked on Butch Hartman's The Fairly Odd Parents, one of Nickelodeon’s most successful shows. Saba would become producer for multiple seasons, at which time The Fairly Odd Parents would be nominated twice for a Daytime Emmy. Saba's decision to relocate to Nashville was a thrill to Magnetic Dreams’ leadership.