Howie Shia
Born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Howie Shia is a Toronto-based illustrator, animation director and writer. His films have won several awards, including the 2007 Tokyo Anime Fair Grand Prix for Flutter, and both BAM (2015) and 4 North A (2021; written and co-directed by Jordan Canning) received Canadian Screen Award nominations. In addition to writing, directing and storyboarding for major studios such as Disney and Netflix, Howie maintains a fruitful ongoing relationship with the NFB for his more personal short films. His illustrations and designs have been featured in numerous venues, especially music packaging for Grammy-winning artists such as David Binney and Donny McCaslin (bandleader of David Bowie’s Blackstar band). Alongside his brothers, Howie co-founded the music, film and design studio PPF House. He recently finished storyboarding on Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai and Kid Koala’s feature film debut, Space Cadet. Howie is working on a children’s book, a graphic novel and a new series of shorts based on the fictional Saskatchewan town in his short film Marco’s Oriental Noodles.
