Meridian Gray Culpepper is an animation director based in Carmel, Indiana. She trained in story at Pixar Animation Studios before working as a storyboard artist at Skydance Animation on Apple TV+’s WondLa, contributing writing and storyboards to its Annie Award-nominated Season 1 finale. Today, she is the founder of Herringbone Animation Studios, where she develops and directs original animated films and series. She is the creator and supervising director of Fables, an animated anthology of contemporary fairytale short films, as well as the writer, director, and lead storyboard artist of Planet Jane, an original animated short film that raised $33,000 through Kickstarter.

Inspired by folklore, horror, historical fashion, and the film renaissance of the ’90s and 2000s, Meridian’s work balances broad-appeal drama and comedy with a darker edge. When she’s not making films, you can usually find her running around the house barefoot, dancing to The Prince of Egypt soundtrack, and asking her two cats Paxton and Jonesy how their day was.