initially, damaschke pursued a career in musical theater, working on "godspell" in new york, but soon ended up in los angeles as a production assistant on disney's "pocahontas" in 1994. in 1995, he joined dreamworks studios as a production assistant on "the prince of egypt". he then moved on to become head of creative production in 1999 and head of creative production and development in 2005. damaschke served as a producer of "shark tale" (nominated for academy award for best animated feature in 2004) and an executive producer of "over the hedge" and "kung fu panda". in 2011, he became chief creative officer (cco) of dreamworks animation, running "the factory floor, working with directors, writers and artists," and "calling the creative shots." he was also president of dreamworks live theatricals, and produced tony award-winning, but financially unremarkable, "shrek the musical". in 2013, "the new york times" called him as "one of the film industry's most important executives." in january 2015, damaschke stepped down from his position as chief creative officer at dreamworks to pursue other interests including: theatrical productions; animated television, movies, web series, and live action films. in october 2017, he became the president of animation and family entertainment for skydance media. he would also continue operating his storykey entertainment theatrical production company.