Andrew Sabiston

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Andrew Sabiston is a multi-award nominated children’s television series developer, story editor, writer, lyricist and actor. His written work and series that he has developed or co-developed for television have been recognized with:

a Writers Guild of Canada Award nomination (2022 Best Preschool Animation Writing)
an International Emmy nomination (2020 Best Animated Preschool Series)
a Writers Guild of Canada Award nomination (2020 Best Preschool Animation Writing)
a Canadian Screen Award nomination (2019 Best Preschool Series)
a Parents’ Choice Award win (2019 Approved Seal)
a Juno Award nomination (2018 Best Children’s Album)
a Rockie Award nomination (2017 Best Animated Series)
a Shaw Rocket Prize nomination (2016 Preschool, Ages 0-5)
a Canadian Screen Award nomination (2015 Best Animated Preschool Writing)
multiple Youth Media Alliance Award nominations and wins (Best Preschool Animated Series)
a Dora Award nomination (Best New Musical)

My Story

I’ve been in children’s television my entire professional life, beginning in my teens when I starred in role of Tom Edison on the Nelvana-CBC-Disney series The Edison Twins. Since then I’ve developed and co-developed multiple series (Riley Rocket, Ranger Rob, Super Wings, The Remarkable Mr. King, Kiki & Nuna, The Moblees, Where Oliver Fits) and story edited, written and appeared in hundreds of hours of children’s programming.

In my 35+ years in the business I’ve had the honour of working with the smartest, most creative and joy-filled people anyone could ever hope to meet. That has been the privilege of a lifetime, because here’s the thing…

To create entertaining and meaningful content for children, collaboration is everything.

I’ve been fortunate to have incredible creative partners, producers, directors, co-editors, co-writers, writers, book authors, composers, illustrators and mentors in Canada (where I’m based) and around the world in The United States, Asia and Europe.

For the theatre, I’m the co-author and lyricist of the stage musical NAPOLEON which has had 7 productions in 4 languages.

Series Development & Story Editing

Some of the fun challenges that my collaborators and I have faced when developing animated and live action children’s content for television started like this…

A picture book is to be turned into a series;

A live stage musical is to be re-imagined as a TV show;

A bestselling memoir for grownups is to be adapted as a preschool property;

A two-page concept needs turning into an 80 episode series.

While no show is ever the same, the building blocks used to make them are. Bibles need writing. Worlds need defining. Characters need creating. Structures need setting. Formats need finding. Tone needs establishing. Pilots need scripting.

And after all that…

Stories need spinning. Lots and lots of stories. Once a series goes into production, working with a talented and trusted team of writers as story editor is one of my greatest joys.

If you’re a producer or creator looking to develop a new series, or a producer searching for an ESE to run a writing department let’s connect.