I was born in South West France, to French/Russian parents and have lived for most of my life in London (England).  I have a French Baccalaureate from the French Lycée in London and a B.A. honours degree in English & French Law from the University of Kent in Canterbury.  I know… great preparation for a career in the creative arts!
 
The starting point on my present journey began in 1993, when combining my love for writing and design, I created and produced four cartoon strips (‘Lunar Jim’, ‘Chlorophyll’, ‘Heavens Above’ & ‘Bad Habits’) that all enjoyed long runs in a national newspaper and various specialist magazines (The Telegraph, The New Internationalist and Reform Magazine).  It was an interesting time of snail mail, regular landline telephones and no real internet to speak of!
 
After a few years of success with the cartoon strips and an amazing year in London starring as  ‘Young Elvis’ in a major West End musical I finally got my break in animation in 1998 when I joined London animation house Pepper’s Ghost Productions (‘Tiny Planets’) as a Creative Producer, heading up the company’s development team. After three thoroughly enjoyable years of learning about CGI, motion capture and establishing a network of contacts at international trade fairs, I went freelance again in 2001 to pursue my true calling which was to create my own animation projects.
 
My breakthrough came with ‘Lunar Jim’.  Based on one of my earliest cartoon strips, the evolution of the concept instantly resonated with Canadian media giant, Alliance Atlantis. It was to be the start of a long and fruitful collaboration which spanned six years from 2002 to 2007, during which I worked as Creative Producer on 92 x 11” episodes. ‘Lunar Jim’ had its worldwide launch in January 2006 on CBC and CBeebies and still airs in over 100 territories - including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Latin America, Australia and the US.
 
My next big ‘win’ came on my animated pre-school show, ‘Mike the Knight’ which has been aired globally since 2011 and for which an International Kids Emmy for ‘Best Preschool Show’ was awarded in February 2015. Three seasons of ‘Mike the Knight’ and two features were co-produced by the UK’s HiT Entertainment and Toronto-based Nelvana Studios.

My next show, ‘Ranger Rob’, produced by Nelvana Studios in Toronto and Studio Liddell in the UK, launched on Canada’s Treehouse Channel in September 2016.  It was nominated for ‘2019 Best Preschool Program or Series’ by The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. 

In 2015, and as I was now working almost exclusively with Canadian studios, I moved to Canada with my family.  It felt like a giant leap from our life in beautiful, leafy Richmond-upon-Thames in England to the rugged ravines and picturesque creeks of Toronto, Canada.  But with ‘Ranger Rob’ already in full production, we quickly found our feet and shortly after, I founded Milkcow Media, a media entertainment company, through which I now work on all my projects.

‘Ranger Rob’ was closely followed by ‘Kody Kapow’, another of my preschool shows, which was produced by Sprout, NBCUniversal and Zodiak Kids Studio and launched in the US on Universal Kids in July 2017 and ‘Ricky Zoom’, a major CGI action comedy adventure preschool series, inspired by my 2 year old son (at the time) and produced by Entertainment One.  ‘Ricky Zoom’ first launched in Spring 2019, and is now followed by Season 2 which launched in April 2021 in the UK, Australia and New Zealand with new territory launches coming soon.

Also recently, I’m very proud and excited to have created a very special Indigenous-themed animated preschool action adventure TV series called ‘Wolf Joe’ in collaboration with highly respected Anishinaabe Elder Dr Dave Courchene.  This show was developed with TVO Kids and produced in partnership with the Turtle Lodge, Media RendezVous and Amberwood Entertainment and launched on Canadian screens in January 2021. 

And in other exciting news, ‘Piper’s Pony Tales’, my very first show with a girl-lead character and first live action/supermarionation show, launched in March 2021 on its own YouTube channel in partnership with Toronto-based Epic Story Media, and in conjunction with Breyer Horses, the biggest name in toy horses!

There lots more to come so, for latest news and updates, be sure to follow Milkcow Media on Facebook and check out our latest videos on YouTube!

Stay tuned! 

Alexander Bar