Nathan Wilkes is a Senior Animation Producer and Creative Director based in London, with over six years of hands-on experience building children's animated IP for broadcast and digital audiences. He is best known for his work at Blue Zoo Animation, the independent studio behind some of the most-watched children's programming on YouTube.Numberblocks and the Blocks FranchiseAt Blue Zoo, Nathan served as Lead Creative Producer for the Blocks digital team, overseeing content strategy and production for Numberblocks, Alphablocks, Colourblocks, and Wonderblocks. Numberblocks is one of the most successful educational children's YouTube channels in the world, reaching 14 million subscribers. The wider Blocks franchise network spans over 14 individual YouTube channels, including multilingual versions, with tens of millions of daily views across the network.Nathan led the creative production of YouTube content that drove this growth: music videos, animated shorts, Shorts-format content, and platform-specific adaptations of the broadcast series. Music videos he directed for the Blocks franchise have accumulated hundreds of millions of individual views.Parliamentary and Industry RecognitionIn 2023, Nathan submitted written evidence to the UK Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry into the future of children's content and the challenges facing the sector's digital transition. He has spoken at the Children's Media Conference, the UK's primary annual gathering for children's media professionals, on the subjects of digital distribution, YouTube channel strategy, and building sustainable IP on streaming platforms.Before Blue Zoo Nathan began his career at Walt Disney Studios, where he worked on digital marketing campaigns for major theatrical releases including The Lion King and Toy Story 4. This grounding in large-scale audience strategy for major entertainment brands directly informed his later work scaling children's educational content on YouTube.He holds a First Class Honours degree in Computer Animation.Independent WorkIn 2025, Nathan launched Temi's World, an original preschool animated series on YouTube Kids focused on Caribbean heritage representation. The project demonstrates his ability to build a children's YouTube channel from scratch, not just grow an existing one — from concept development and production through to publishing strategy and audience development.He is also developing He Named Him Park, a hybrid live-action/animation short film targeting major international film festivals including Sundance, Berlinale, Venice, TIFF, and Annecy.Areas of ExpertiseNathan works with producers, broadcasters, and rights-holders who want to take an existing children's television show and build it into a sustainable YouTube presence. His specific areas of knowledge include:YouTube channel strategy for children's preschool and primary-age contentAdapting broadcast TV episodes for YouTube platform performance (retention, click-through, algorithm)Short-form and YouTube Shorts strategy for children's animationThumbnail and title optimisation for young audiencesBuilding multilingual and international YouTube channel networks from a single IPContent calendars and publishing cadence for educational animated seriesAudience development for BBC, Milkshake!, and CBeebies-originated programmingWho He Works WithNathan is particularly suited to independent production companies launching or scaling a children's YouTube channel alongside a broadcast commission, studios taking a CBeebies or Milkshake! show onto digital platforms for the first time, and rights-holders looking to understand how to adapt children's TV content for the specific demands of YouTube's algorithm and audience.