Jeff Chiba Stearns is an Emmy® nominated and multi-award-winning animation and documentary filmmaker, as well as an acclaimed author and illustrator. After graduating from the Emily Carr University with a degree in Film Animation, he founded Vancouver-based boutique animation studio and publishing company Meditating Bunny Studio Inc. in 2001. Jeff’s short and feature-length films, including “What Are You Anyways?” (2005), Yellow Sticky Notes (2007), One Big Hapa Family (2010) and Mixed Match (2016), have been broadcast around the world, screened at hundreds of international film festivals, and garnered dozens of awards. 

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Being yonsei, fourth generation Japanese Canadian, and having mixed Japanese and European heritage, Jeff’s work often deals with themes of multiethnic identity. He coined the term “Hapanimation” to describe his distinctive blend of anime and manga influences with a North American cartoon aesthetic. In 2018, he wrote and illustrated his first picture book Mixed Critters, an ABC book inspired by his own children’s mixed Japanese backgrounds. His second children’s book, Nori and His Delicious Dreams (2020), follows a Japanese Canadian boy who dreams of sleeping on foods from around the world. In 2021, Jeff collaborated with sansei artist Lillian Michiko Blakey to create the bestselling graphic novel On Being Yukiko. Published by The National Coalition of Canadians Against Anti-Asian Racism (NCCAAR), Jeff released his second graphic novel Tomey: The Unyielding Spirit of Tomekichi Homma in 2025, chronicling the life of Japanese Canadian civil rights leader Tomekichi Homma.

Ojiichan’s Dragon (2026) is Jeff’s third graphic novel.