Adam Paloian

Adam Paloian is an Emmy-winning director, writer and producer, and the founder of Pinreel Inc., an independent animation studio in Los Angeles. As supervising director on Netflix’s The Cuphead Show! he won the Children’s & Family Emmy for Outstanding Directing for an Animated Program for “A Very Devil Christmas.” Before that he was a supervising director on SpongeBob SquarePants, where he directed “Mimic Madness” for the season that won the 2018 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Animated Series.

At Pinreel he directed Tenacious D’s “Video Games,” winner of an Annie and a Webby, then wrote and directed “Go Fetch!,” SpongeBob’s first CG episode and a 2026 Annecy selection. He was lead character designer on The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, nominated for the 2026 Annie for character design.

Adam grew up on Long Island, New York, a child of the ’90s raised on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and 1950s and ’60s B-movie monsters like The Giant Claw. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration in 2013.

His work leans toward horror-comedy, handmade textures, and characters who are a little gross and a lot lovable. He has lectured at the Rhode Island School of Design, UC Irvine, the Kansas City Art Institute and the Playgrounds festival in Eindhoven, and is developing original animated features.