Crew

Co-founders and A Bunch of Other Stuff
Kash Abdulmalik
Noah Hilsenrad

Lead Digital Artist
Elijah Leonard

Lead Animators
Ryan Ortgiesen
Joe Ortiz

KASH ABDULMALIK
When we asked the Dark Matter staff about Kash Abdulmalik’s (a.k.a. Captain Kash Ajax) character a few words popped up more than once.  Master storyteller, bull-headed brave heart  and sensual tyrannosaurus. Kash attended F.I.T. in New York City where he studied fine arts and toy design. He then relocated to Los Angeles and according to him accidentally became a writer. After some time studying improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre in Los Angeles his writing started focusing on comedy & animation sketches. When some of the shorts started to materialize with the help of his cohorts Noah Hilsenrad (know-it-all jerk) and Elijah Leonard (kind of a sissy), Kash returned to NYC to join the Dark Matter Video fleet! He now resides in Brooklyn with his girlfriend Lauren, their dog HR and his razor sharp wit.

NOAH HILSENRAD
Noah Hilsenrad (a.k.a. Captain Noah Hellrad) graduated from Parsons School of Design in 2001 and has more or less been designing and making art in NYC ever since. While running Logicontrol studio, Noah has worked for companies such as the Corporate Agenda LLC, Studio Nowhere, Revlon, Granet Associates and Second Thought, Inc. He teaches at Parsons; is a huge nerd; wishes he had a dog/played capoeira better/ traveled more; sometimes feels like Spock to Co-Captain Kash Abdulmalik’s Kirk; does not enjoy writing autobiographical semicolon-delineated lists in the third person. Noah is pleased, even smug, about working at Dark Matter Video.

ELIJAH LEONARD
Elijah (a.k.a. ValueDood001) was born. Cut to 32 years later. He works for Dark Matter Video.

RYAN ORTGIESEN
Ryan Thomas Ortgiesen is a freelance 2D animator, motion graphics artist, web designer and traveler. His work has been seen in Feature-Length movies, documentaries, television and across the internet. Inspired by the fluid movement and visual aesthetic of the golden age of cartoons, Ryan creates unique digital and Flash animations that look anything but digital. See www.ryanort.com.

JOSE ORTIZ (A.K.A. MINDCHAMBER)
Not much is known about the mysterious entity known as Mindchamber. The proof is this bio. Nuff said.