DreamWorks Animation has inked an exclusive multi-year agreement with Walt Dohrn, the director of Trolls World Tour.

In the overall first-look deal, Dohrn—a longtime DreamWorks vet who co-directed Trolls and several Shrek shorts—will develop animated film and TV content for the studio. He will also executive produce, direct, develop and oversee a slate of projects.

Dohrn has helped bring some big success to the studio in recent years with the Trolls franchise. Universal released the new movie Trolls World Tour this past spring in a pay-VOD format that generated more than US$100 million in revenue, in addition to nearly US$5 million at drive-in movie theaters, according to Universal. The first Trolls movie grossed more than US$346 million worldwide, and spawned a CP program, a Netflix series and a stage show.

Dohrn joined DreamWorks in 2002, and has since contributed to story development for Rise of the Guardians, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Shrek the Third (on which he also did some voice acting) and Shark Tale. Before joining the studio, he was a storyboard artist and writer and worked on Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants and Dexter’s Laboratory.