Nickelodeon has introduced that 12 new contributors have been chosen to affix its annual Writing and Artists Applications. The long-running Writing Program enters its twenty third yr, whereas 2023 marks the twelfth yr for the Artist Program. Each packages are overseen by the Paramount Workplace of International Inclusion and aligned with the corporate’s Content material for Change initiative.
“We’re thrilled to welcome the brand new contributors and future storytellers to the Nickelodeon Writing and Artist Applications,” mentioned Marva Smalls, Paramount’s Govt Vice President, International Head of Inclusion. “For over 20 years, this program has been a catalyst for many individuals within the inventive neighborhood to be taught and develop the instruments wanted to launch their careers. Applications like these proceed our dedication to an inclusive expertise pipeline and numerous illustration inside each creators and the content material they produce at Paramount.”
Inside the yearlong Writing Program, contributors get to community with executives and present creators, acquire expertise with script writing and pitching story concepts, attend workshops, seminars, and courses, and work in writers’ rooms. They are going to be paired with and provided steerage by executives mentors, together with Nickelodeon’s Mollie Freilich (Director, Present Sequence Animation), Leslie Wishnevski (Supervisor, Animation Improvement), and Linda Halder (Director, Reside-Motion Improvement).
The Writing Program contributors are:
Paige Elson:
- A author, actor, and comic initially from Stockton, California. Whereas learning at Pepperdine College, she “created an internet sequence along with her fellow performing friends, wrote and carried out monologues, and even created, produced, and carried out in a showcase for the theater division’s Black performers. As a Black, biracial, queer lady raised by a single, white mom, she typically explores themes of Blackness, biracial-ness, womanhood, id, and unconventional households in her writing.”
Michelle Miyoko Timm:
- A biracial Japanese American from Castro Valley, California, she attended Las Positas Group School, the place she took an performing class “she beloved a lot that she dropped out at age 19 and moved to Los Angeles. Sadly, she found that she’s a horrible actress. She did, nevertheless, discover a love for improv and sketch comedy and writing brief movies.” Timm has determined to pursue comedy writing as an alternative and is “proudly changing into her father on the quantity of her mom.”
Bryan Smith and Mayanna Berrin (“Bryanna”):
- Bryan Smith and Mayanna Berrin are “what’s recognized in showbiz as a ‘Triple Menace’—they write collectively, they do get up collectively, they usually apply for writing packages collectively! The essence of their voice as a writing workforce comes from the attractive, messy collision of their reverse lived experiences. Berrin discovered her comedic type in her loud, blended Lengthy Island household that despatched her to improv courses earlier than she might discuss. Smith developed his want for laughter rising up as an similar twin in Colorado.”
Throughout the six-month Artist Program, contributors will be taught from lead artists and apply their craft whereas engaged on an animated sequence in numerous levels of manufacturing. The Artist Program tracks embody storyboard, normal design, or CG generalist.
The artists are paired with inventive mentors at Nickelodeon from exhibits, together with Transformers: EarthSpark, Max and the Midknights, The Loud Home, and SpongeBob SquarePants.
The Artist Program contributors are:
Chase Mack (Storyboard Monitor):
- Chase Mack was born in Houston, Texas, “and spent his childhood drawing and immersing himself in animation and filmmaking via native artwork courses and golf equipment.” He graduated from The College of Texas at Dallas with a bachelor’s diploma in Arts, Know-how, and Rising Communications with a spotlight in animation. “Mack continues to additional his ardour in storytelling in order that he can encourage the subsequent era of artists.”
Dianna Kim (Normal Design Monitor):
- Dianna Kim was born and raised in SoCal’s South Bay, spending summers on the seashore or watching cartoons. As artwork was nonetheless only a interest, she studied economics at UCLA and started a profession in tech advertising and marketing. When she was abruptly laid off in early 2020, “Kim discovered pleasure in drawing once more, and he or she made the massive choice to pursue a profession in animation. By on-line courses, she discovered a love for creating areas and telling tales via background artwork.”
Chad Bennett (Storyboard Monitor):
- Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Bennett “beloved cartoons and spent most of his childhood drawing comics and characters impressed by the exhibits he noticed on tv. Due to the Web and the appearance of social media, Bennett found making foolish cartoons might be a job! He pursued a level in animation at Columbia School Chicago, the place he discovered a deep love for storyboarding. Bennett lately moved to Los Angeles to interrupt into the trade, hoping to share his humorousness and his need for complexity and variety within the animation world.”
Elise Fedoroff (CG Generalist Monitor):
- Elise Fedoroff is a Los Angeles-based 3D artist who grew up with “a ardour for telling tales via her artwork.” Fedoroff secured her love for animation within the California State Summer season College for the Arts pre-college program at CalArts, after which she attended Ringling School of Artwork and Design. There she found a ardour for 3D modeling and texturing, and after graduating, she put her expertise to work within the toy trade.
Doyung Lee (Storyboard Monitor):
- Doyung Lee began his storyboarding journey two years in the past, studying via mentorship packages like Rise Up Animation and Story4All, in addition to quite a few on-line assets. In faculty, he studied engineering, the place he “fed his creativity by studying numerous types of printmaking, constructing robots, and arising with eclectic artwork initiatives.”
Jonathan Fernandez (Normal Design Monitor):
- Jonathan Fernandez is a visible growth artist based mostly in Los Angeles. “As a baby, he was impressed to attract and paint due to his love for tv exhibits and flicks. In faculty, he jumped round totally different profession paths however all the time discovered time to attract and paint. Happily, he stumbled upon an idea artwork portray that reignited his curiosity and redirected him to pursue animation.”
Bikram Singh (Storyboard Monitor):
- Bikram Singh grew up within the suburbs of Sacramento, California “watching Saturday morning cartoons and anime.” His ardour for animation led him to enroll within the Animation/Illustration program at San Jose State College, and there he joined the “illustrious Shrunkenheadman Membership.” After graduating, he did design and animation work for numerous firms and organizations within the Sacramento space.
Richard Rodriguez (Normal Design Monitor):
- Richard Rodriguez is a visible growth artist from Southern California “with a humorousness and full of life creativeness influenced by the cartoons that captivated him in his youth.” Rodriguez honed his inventive expertise at ArtCenter School of Design, the place he found the facility of visible storytelling. Whereas working in animation has been his long-time objective, “his biggest ambition is to entertain and encourage younger audiences in the identical method as storytellers have executed for him.”
Writing Program alumni at the moment working at Nickelodeon embody Josh Brown (Story Editor, Child Shark’s Large Present); Angel Hobbs (Workers Author, That Woman Lay Lay); Sarah Allan (Author, Large Nate); and Jeff Sayers (Workers Author, The Loud Home). As well as, program alumnus author/producer Sameer Gardezi, in collaboration along with his brainchild Break the Room, works carefully with NWP designing and architecting revolutionary curricula for the workshops and writers’ room workout routines.
Artist Program alumni embody Roger Hernandez (CG Generalist, Large Nate); Dominique Evans (Visible Improvement Artist, Transformers: EarthSpark); Sarah Jacques (Artwork Director, Santiago of the Seas); Jasmine Reyes (Storyboard Revisionist, Large Nate); Anna Hill (Storyboard Artist, The Loud Home); Carl Edward Mongan (Storyboard Revisionist, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Below Years); Marisa Torres (Visible Improvement Artist, Santiago of the Seas & Rock, Paper, Scissors); and Jake Kim (Storyboard Revisionist, Shimmer & Shine). Exterior of Nickelodeon, alumni of each Applications have gone on to create exhibits and maintain employees positions at each main studio and community.
For extra data on the Nickelodeon Writing Program, go to @NickWriting on Twitter and @NickWritingProgram on Instagram and www.nickwriting.com, or @nick_artists on Instagram and www.nickartist.com for the Artist Program. The following submission interval opens July 1 for each Applications.
Supply: Nickelodeon
Debbie Diamond Sarto is information editor at Animation World Community.
