Sean O’Reilly is an energetic and passionate visionary who has demonstrated his leadership, creativity, intelligence, humanity and resourcefulness as the founder and C.E.O. of Arcana Studios. Receiving his B.Sc. in Biology from Simon Fraser University in 1997, Sean completed his second degree in Education in 1999 from the University of British Columbia and finished his M.Sc. in Leadership and Administration at the University of Oregon in 2002. Sean is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in a Doctoral of Management Information Services and Technology. His professional and academic experiences in transmedia has seen him guest lecture at Harvard University, the University of Southern California (USC), the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU). He is currently teaching a course in transmedia under the UCLA Screenwriters program. In 2008 he won the Top 40 Under 40 award from the city of Vancouver, and in 2011 Sean won Caldwell’s Top 40 Under 40 in Canada.
As a lifelong fan of comic books, Sean’s dream was to become a comic book creator. In 2004, Sean realized that dream by creating Arcana Studios, a comic book and graphic novel publisher. Sean took his studio from a one-person operation to an award winning publisher with over 150 graphic novels. Arcana now owns one of the world’s largest libraries of graphic novels and has produced books for Simon & Shuster, Harper Collins, Random House, Stone Arch Books, American Girl, KISS, Scholastic, and Arcana.
Arcana won the Shuster Award for Outstanding Publisher in 2005, as voted by the retailers and readers. He personally authored and published the Moonbeam Award winner for Top Children’s Graphic Novel, The Clockwork Girl and The Gwaii respectively. The Clockwork Girl was also Foreword Magazine’s Top Graphic Novel as presented at Book Expo America. Last year, Arcana was named one of the top Manufacturers & Exporters in 2010.
Now partnered with Hollywood powerhouse United Talent Agency, Sean just wrote and produced two Lion’s Gate Films, Circle of Pain and Beatdown and he is now producing the animated feature film based on the story he wrote and published. Sean is also developing and producing Gearhead with producer Gale Anne Hurd (“The Terminator”, “The Walking Dead”), Blade of Kumori with Alexandra Milchan (Sylvestor Stallone’s “Head Shot”) on Blade of Kumori, Hans Rodinoff and Hollywood Media Bridge (“Lost Boys: The Tribe”) on Raise Kane, Scott Milam (“Mother’s Day”) on Gauze, Ben Magid (“Hack/Slash”) on Trout, Howie Mandel (“Hidden Howie”) on Philosopher Rex, Terry Dougas (“The Invention of Lying”) on The Tower, Doc Wyatt (“Napoleon Dynamite”) on 100 Girls, JC Spink (“The Hangover”) on New Line’s Continuum, Adrian Askarieh (“The Hitman”) on Amnesia and he also is producing a three slate at Codeblack/Universal. Sean also produced and directed a series of original animated shows for SpikeTV called Mark of the Warrior. Sean has also produced Steven Segal’s A Dangerous Man from Paramount and SyFy’s Paradox also based on the book he published.
