Guru Studio’s investment in talent and original IP paid off in 2022, which isn’t a surprise to CEO Frank Falcone, who says the company has “been steadily building our brands for years.”

“This past year, we doubled down on brands and shows that have a steady audience, whether it’s boom times fuelled by the streamers or not,” says Falcone. “These shows outlive the platforms.”

The production company signed several new broadcast, product and licensing deals for its original IP, True and the Rainbow Kingdom (pictured), which first premiered on Netflix in 2017 and released subsequent seasons in 2018 and 2019.

The preschool animation is now tackling new realms for Guru. Titular character True is billed as the first 3D-animated character to join Cameo, thanks to a partnership with Texas tech company Aquifer to bring the protagonist to video messaging app Cameo using moderated AI. Guru receives 75% of the profits.

The studio has had an eye on innovation. In April 2022, Mark Pinder joined as VP of technology and has since led the development of its new virtual desktop infrastructure to ensure the studio’s more than 300 artists could continue to work from home. He’s also been leading efforts to upgrade the company’s CG pipeline, which will be his focus for the next year as well.

In 2022 alone, Guru signed new service deals with TIME Studios for Scoops, a new animated show focused on media literacy, and with Moonbug Entertainment for a new Disney+-bound CG series based on the YouTube hit My Magic Pet Morphle.

Meanwhile, Guru and Sesame Workshop premiered their Sesame Street animated spinoff Mecha Builders on Cartoon Network, HBO Max and Treehouse TV. Guru also kept working on Spin Master’s PAW Patrol, now in its 10th season.

The studio has had to expand production work overseas to keep up with demand, partnering with several trusted studios for anything that Guru doesn’t have in-house capacity for. Despite this new growth and interest, Falcone is keeping the Toronto studio’s capacity at four to six shows at any one time.

“Instead of going into a growth mode where we added more projects and more people, we started to offshore some productions, as a strategy, to steel ourselves against oncoming [economic] headwinds,” says Falcone.

Guru also expanded its horizons in 2022 by partnering with Singapore company Omen Studios on a distribution and licensing deal for 123 Number Squad, an unusual partnership for the studio, which usually focuses on production or service partnerships and only distributes and does licensing work for its own IP.

“This is unique for us, but we liked the show and now we can see how it performs, then decide whether or not to get involved on the creative side in future seasons,” says Falcone.

The production company is working on an anime western for a VOD platform, a family sitcom focused on immigrant family values, and adapting a concept that is native to YouTube. All of the concepts are ones that Falcone believes hit on current trends in the marketplace, while offering something new.

This story originally appeared in Playback‘s Winter 2022 issue