Erik Wiese is an Annie Award-winning and Emmy-nominated director, writer, and producer working in both feature and television animation. Most recently, he directed the critically acclaimed Peanuts special Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical for Apple TV+, which became a number one hit movie in its opening weekend. Prior to that, he was Director and Executive Producer of Netflix’s hit kids’ animated series Sonic Prime. Earlier, he was a director at Illumination, where he helmed several Minions shorts and commercials.
Wiese began his career as a supervising animator on Björk’s “I Miss You,” then collaborated with Stephen Hillenburg on the SpongeBob SquarePants pilot. He remained with the franchise for years as a storyboard artist and writer, later serving as Head of Story on The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. His additional film work includes The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants , Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, and Shrek 5. His television work also includes co-creating, directing, and executive producing two seasons of Nickelodeon’s The Mighty B!, starring Amy Poehler.
Erik attended the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He holds American, Colombian, and German citizenship. He’s dyslexic but bilingual, so it all works out.
