Bio and Awards

Born in 1964, Shaheen grew up in London. He attended art school in Chelsea and then gained a BA Honors degree in Photography from the the London College of Printing/ London University .

His unique visual style combined aspects of photography, oil paints and ephemera, working in London, New York and Toronto in the late 80s he quickly became an internationally sort after illustrator in both the publishing and music worlds.

In the early 1990’s, Shaheen moved to Toronto and started the award winning animation studio , Cuppa Coffee. Shaheen took his established illustration style creating media-mixed, avant-garde animation for both international network branding and commercials across North America.

Shaheen’s passion for showcasing the “experimental” saw this trend adopted as a global norm. Cuppa Coffees success saw the studio grow from a staff of 5 people in 1992, to over 450, 30 years later. 

While heading up Cuppa Coffee’s award-winning broadcast design and commercial studio,  Shaheen grew Cuppa Coffee into the leading production house for stop motion animation globally, producing multiple television series for Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, HBO, CBS, MTV, ABC and Comedy Central and many other networks.

Shaheen has produced well over 400 commercials, re-designed 22 different TV channels  and won over 150 International tv design and programming awards. Shaheen is the recipient of 3 coveted Gemini awards for excellence, given out by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television ( the equivalent of the US Emmy awards.) Since renamed as the Canadian Screen Awards.

He has created 10 original series and produced 21 series.

He has 35 years of experience executive producing multi million dollar budget projects, leveraging  Federal and Provincial tax credits and both creating and managing original IP with third party merchandising and licensing companies.

With a desire to shift production to live action, Shaheen opened Los Angeles based Cuppa Coffee USA. in 2018.

In 2022 Shaheen Executive Produced and financed the Teen comedy “Step Aside” with an all American crew and cast and shot on location in Los Angeles.

In 2023 Shaheen created the World War One drama, Game of Lies and the script was financed and green-lit .

In 2023 Shaheen created the drama, Game of Lies and the script was financed and green-lit for a fall 2026 shooting schedule.

Shaheen was also  commissioned in 2024 to create a film version of Academy Award winning Robert Bolt’s evergreen play “The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew” that is set to shoot in Los Angeles and Budapest summer 2026.