Royi Akavia is an artist and animation director with over 30 years of professional experience. Originally from Israel, he relocated to Kobe, Japan, in 2011, where he currently heads KOA Productions, Inc., a leading computer graphics and animation firm, and oversees a series of art galleries.
In 2005, Akavia founded Little Director, an animation company that encouraged children aged 3 to 9 to draw pictures and send them to the Little Director studio for processing. Using proprietary software, the company transformed the children’s drawings into animated movies. In May 2007, Little Director was featured on The Rachael Ray Show, a nationally syndicated television program. Other segments aired on news programs in Miami (Movie Magic) and Boston (Kid’s Creations), as well as on Univision’s Hispanic Network (Control). The company has collaborated with PBS, Barney & Friends, and The Sunny Side Up Show, among others. Little Director has received numerous animation awards, including recognition from the Miami Public School System and City of Miami Beach Parks and Recreation. An estimated one million young people have benefited from Little Director.
Little Director also acquired the rights to four animated programs produced by MoonScoop Productions, a French animation company, and its subsidiary, Mike Young Productions, one of the largest independent animation companies in the United States. These programs include Dive Olly Dive, Code Lyoko, Pet Alien, and I Got A Rocket. Code Lyoko was merchandised as a video game by The Game Factory for the Nintendo Wii platform and was well-received upon its release in late 2007.
In 2005, Akavia created Cydonia, an animated short film aimed at teaching children the importance of keeping the Earth clean and pollution-free.
Akavia has also served as art director for several MTV Europe projects, including MTV The Hague (Holland). Additionally, he collaborated with a team from Columbia University in New York on an early-childhood education project, Move to Learn Apps.
As a highly respected artist, Akavia’s works are part of the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum (New York) and the Norton Museum (Palm Beach, Florida). His art is also featured in Japanese museums, including the Suzan Museum (Tokyo), the Aichi Prefectural Museum (Nagoya), and the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art (Hiroshima).
In 2017, Akavia opened his first art gallery, Kitano Alley Gallery (Kobe), showcasing new Japanese artists as well as international artists who had not been widely exhibited in Japan. In 2015, Akavia established a print-publishing house, KOA Productions, and held its first print show at the Kitano Alley Gallery. In 2017, he opened a second gallery location in the InterContinental Hotel Grand Front (Osaka). In 2018, he expanded further with the 36 Level Gallery at the ANA Crown Plaza Hotel (Kobe).
Akavia has used his passion for art to support local nonprofit initiatives. In 2018, he co-sponsored four Art for Charity exhibitions with the American Chamber of Commerce of Japan (ACCJ, Kansai) to support the Food Bank Kansai (FKB). For his efforts, the ACCJ awarded Akavia the 2018 Volunteer of the Year Award in recognition of his pivotal role in establishing and advancing the Art for Charity events.