Name: Gabriel Choquette

Hometown: Orleans, ON

Publication: The Elementary Safety Book For Children

Born: 1978

Winning Ben Wicks Award entry:

• Cover
• Crossing the Street Safely
• Farm Safety 1
• Farm Safety 2
• What to do in Case of Emergency

Current:

• Bob Hahn
• Rachel Loveless
• Raphael Pirard

Past:

• Alison Acton
• Ryan Browne
• Gabriel Choquette
• Stephen Downer
• Brianne Drouhard
• Jeff Epp
• Henry Fong
• Tanya Francis
• Aaron Given
• Rob Jones
• Al Kang
• Ian Maclean
• Greg Moran
• Mike Myhre
• Eric Peladeau
• Tyler Schroeder
• Rob Seddon
• June Um

Gabriel was born and raised in Orleans, a French suburb outside of Ottawa. Fueled by a fascination with Saturday morning cartoons, his obsession with illustration and animation developed at an early age. He began to take art seriously at age thirteen, and pursued it all through his public education.

Enrollment in the Animation program at Algonquin College introduced him to a whole new understanding of the craft. He is currently working for the French Center of Ontario, doing Flash animations for online educational courses. When not drawing, he’s busy teaching Taekwon-Do as a third degree black belt with the International Taekwon-Do Federation.

Gabriel’s dream is to produce his own animated features, T.V. shows and comic books. The generosity conferred by the Ben Wicks Award will help him to achieve his aspirations and advance his creative dexterity.

Fans can contact Gabriel by e-mail at gabe_cartoon@hotmail.com

“Special thanks to my ever-encouraging and guiding parents, my two loving sisters, my girlfriend Allison, my friends in and out of the Sans souci, and my buddy Roch-Alain for letting me know about this incredible contest!”