The Children’s Media Foundation (CMF)

Our Children’s Future: Does Public Service Media Matter?

Tom Van Waveren

Tom Van Waveren

Tom van Waveren began his career in animation at Nelvana in 1996 as Director of its London office. In 1999, Tom moved to Copenhagen to head up Egmont Imagination as its President where he was involved in the production of over 100 hours of animation, including 'Paz', 'Rex the Runt', 'Little People' and 'Hamilton Mattress', and the distribution of 'Lizzie McGuire'.

Tom started his own company Hoek, Line & Thinker in 2004 and merged his pipeline of projects with CAKE in 2006. He was responsible for scouting, development and the executive production of all CAKE content.

Tom was the CEO and Creative Director at CAKE from 2006 through to 2021. He has been nominated three times for a daytime Emmy (still waiting for that win) and oversaw a development slate of over 20 properties from pre-school to animation for 6-12 years, as well as all CAKE's current productions, which have included over the years, 'Skunk Fu!', 'Angelo Rules', 'Oscar’s Oasis', 'Space Chickens in Space', 'Mush Mush and the Mushables', 'Mama K’s Team 4', and 'Angry Birds: Summer Madness'.

Tom is currently a Vice-Chair of Animation in Europe, where he is working to improve support for the European animation industry.



A Virtuous Circle: Creating A New Additional Funding Model

I have been working in children’s television for 25 years and have had the privilege of working with producers and content from all over the world. In the past few years, I have learned a lot about diversity and representation, I have learned about what drives public service broadcast platforms as well as commercial broadcast […]

The Children’s Media Foundation (CMF)