Thorbjørn Christoffersen (b. 1978) graduated in animation and illustration from the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark. His directorial debut came with the low budget 3D animated film Terkel in Trouble (2004), a festival and domestic box-office hit and recipient of the Youth Award at Malmö BUFF. Thorbjørn is co-director of the sci-fi spoof Journey to Saturn (2008) and Roland the Barbarian (2011). Checkered Ninja is his fourth feature film as a director and a continuation of the creative partnership with Anders Matthesen who co-directed the film.