In 1980, he began teaching and developing the animation program at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts', Kanbar Institute of Film and Television Department.
In 1967, after a two-year stint in the Army, Canemaker, with funds from acting assignments in TV commercials (he appeared in over 35 advertisements for major products, most famously leading a line of "fat kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks" through Central Park for Armour hotdogs)—and appearing as a cast member of the 1972 WCBS-TV show Patchwork Family, in which he drew on a large sketching pad—he obtained his bachelor of arts degree from Marymount Manhattan College in 1974 and master of fine arts in film from New York University in 1976.
Canemaker's filmography includes independently made animated shorts that are part of the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.
In addition, Canemaker writes regularly on animation for The New York Times and is on-camera and audio commentator on DVD versions of The Fantasia Anthology, Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cut-up: The Films of Grant Munro, and Winsor McCay: The Master Edition.
He has appeared on NBC's Today, PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and Entertainment Tonight, and has lectured throughout the United States and in Brazil, Canada, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and Wales.