barry r. kooser is an american artist, painter, and documentary filmmaker who worked at walt disney feature animation studios between 1992 and 2003 as a background artist on films such as "the lion king", "pocahontas", "mulan", "lilo & stitch", and as background supervisor on "brother bear". after leaving disney, he worked independently as a painter exhibiting and selling fine art in galleries around the us. while teaching animation and story-boarding at rocky mountain college of art + design, he met worker studio founder michael "ffish" hemschoot, and became a partner at the colorado animation studio. barry has since left worker studio. he is the founder, executive producer and director at many hoops productions.