BP Staff Feature: Andrew Haldeman
“I was nicknamed the ‘Art Guy’ by my high school Art teacher.”
Little did Andrew “Andy” Haldeman realize that being dubbed the “Art Guy” by his Redondo Union High School teacher would be foretelling for him. Since then, art has paved the way for this Southern California native who graduated from California Institute of the Arts with a BA in Film/Video Character Animation. As he navigated his way post-college and through early animation projects, Andrew remained focused on his artistic goals while meeting new people and taking every opportunity that presented itself.
Throughout his illustrious career, Andrew has been creative with how and where to find work by following connections from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Germany and back to Hollywood. As his career grew, he worked on notable animated movies like An American Tale, Land Before Time, and Chipmunks Rockin’ Through the Ages. He played a pivotal role in animating commercials for Colossal Pictures. They created commercials for companies like Allstate Insurance, Carl’s Jr., Hewlett Packard, Honey Nut Cheerios and Mitsubishi, some of which appeared as Super Bowl ads. Through his connections in the animation industry, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), an American visual effects studio founded by George Lucas, contacted Andy and he served as Special Effects Animator under Wes Takahashi for the movie, Hook and Star Trek VI. Soon after Andrew worked for Skellington Productions where he did special effects for A Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Additional professional projects included animation for Atari and the Learning Company.
Since chasing the next artistic project can be exhausting, Andrew took a break from Hollywood and pivoted to working briefly in construction, as a server, and at a few grocery stores. At Trader Joe’s, it wasn’t long before his artistic talent was discovered, and he was assigned “the chalkboard.” Many Trader Joe’s fans are familiar with their decorative chalk art! Andrew subsequently switched over to Bristol Farms where, again, his artistry was discovered and valued, and he was promoted to being their full-time chalk artist.
In 2018, while working as an instructor at Palos Verdes Art Center, Andy learned of a teaching position for a newly created animation program at Center for Learning Unlimited (CLU) located in Torrance, CA. He was hired as the first-year animation instructor to teach neurodiverse aspiring artists how to animate traditionally. Seven years later, every single student who has attended the program, now known as Brainstorm Academy, has been taught by Andrew, an accomplishment he shares with pride.
That pride is limited, however, as Andrew is quite humble when it comes to his influence within Brainstorm’s culture. When CLU created the three-year transitions program, it became known as Brainstorm Academy, an educational environment for neurodivergent adults seeking animation and employment training skills. An extension of that developed, named Brainstorm Studio, a part-time employment workplace for applying animation and soft skills. Within the Academy and Studio, colleagues rave about the positive effect Andrew has on the students and organization. Brainstorm’s Program Director, Ginny Erxleben, explained that without Andrew, Dreams - the spectacular showcase for celebrating the Studio’s artistic talent and first-of-its-kind fundraising event for the non-profit - would not have been possible.
Andrew says they have already begun working on projects for the 2nd Annual Celebration of Animated Film and Art, scheduled for 2026, and there’s “a lot to do between now and then.”