Twelve new contributors be a part of Nickelodeon’s annual Writing and Artist Applications, designed to develop the following era of inventive voices from underrepresented communities. This yr’s applications are again in particular person on the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank for the primary time since 2020, the place group members will develop their expertise with hands-on work. The long-running Writing Program enters its twenty third yr, whereas 2023 marks the twelfth yr for the Artist Program.
Each applications are overseen by the Paramount Workplace of World 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,” stated Marva Smalls, Paramount’s Government Vice President, World Head of Inclusion. “For over 20 years, this program has been a catalyst for many individuals within the inventive neighborhood to study 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 Writing Program, all contributors have the chance to community with executives and present creators, acquire firsthand expertise writing scripts, pitch story concepts, attend workshops, seminars, and courses, and expertise working writers’ rooms. These writers will develop their expertise with hands-on work through the yearlong program.
Throughout this system, the writers might be paired with govt mentors to supply steering, together with Nickelodeon’s Mollie Freilich (Director, Present Collection Animation), Leslie Wishnevski (Supervisor, Animation Growth) and Linda Halder (Director, Dwell-Motion Growth).
The Writing Program contributors are:
Paige Elson: Paige Elson is a author, actor and comic initially from Stockton, Calif. Whereas learning at Pepperdine College, she created a webseries along with her fellow performing friends, wrote and carried out monologs, and even created, produced and carried out in a showcase for the theater division’s Black performers. As a Black, biracial, queer girl raised by a single, white mom, she usually explores themes of Blackness, biracial-ness, womanhood, id and unconventional households in her writing.
Michelle Miyoko Timm: Michelle Miyoko Timm is a biracial Japanese American from Castro Valley, Calif. She attended Las Positas Group Faculty, the place she took an performing class she cherished 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, nonetheless, discover a love for improv and sketch comedy, and writing quick movies. Timm determined to pursue comedy writing as a substitute, 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 identified in show-biz as a “Triple Risk” — they write collectively, they do rise up collectively and so they apply for writing applications collectively! The essence of their voice as a writing crew comes from the gorgeous, messy collision of their reverse lived experiences. Berrin discovered her comedic type in her loud, combined Lengthy Island household that despatched her to improv courses earlier than she may discuss. Smith developed his need-for-laughter rising up as an an identical twin in Colorado.
In the course of the six-month Artist Program, aspiring artists will study from lead artists and follow their craft as they work on an animated sequence in varied phases of manufacturing. The Artist Program tracks embrace storyboard, common design or CG generalist.
The artists are paired with creative mentors at Nickelodeon to information their manufacturing expertise from reveals, together with Transformers: EarthSpark, Max and the Midknights, The Loud Home, SpongeBob SquarePants and extra.
The Artist Program contributors are:
Chase Mack (Storyboard Monitor): Chase Mack was born in Houston, Texas and spent his adolescence drawing and immersing himself in animation and filmmaking by means of native artwork courses and golf equipment. Mack graduated from The College of Texas at Dallas with a bachelor’s diploma in Arts, Expertise and Rising Communications with a spotlight in animation. Mack continues to additional his ardour in storytelling in order that he can encourage the following 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 pastime, she studied economics at UCLA and commenced 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 large choice to pursue a profession in animation. By way of on-line courses, she discovered a love for creating areas and telling tales by means of background artwork.
Chad Bennet (Storyboard Monitor): Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Bennett cherished cartoons and spent most of his childhood drawing comics and characters impressed by the reveals he noticed on tv. Because of the Web and the appearance of social media, Bennett found making foolish cartoons could possibly be a job! He pursued a level in animation at Columbia Faculty Chicago, the place he discovered a deep love for storyboarding. Bennett just lately moved to Los Angeles to interrupt into the business, hoping to share his humorousness and his want 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 by means of her artwork. Fedoroff secured her love for animation within the California State Summer time Faculty for the Arts pre-college program at CalArts, after which she attended Ringling Faculty of Artwork and Design. There she found a ardour for 3D modeling and texturing, and after graduating, put her expertise to work within the toy business.
Doyung Lee (Storyboard Monitor): Doyung Lee began his storyboarding journey two years in the past, studying by means of mentorship applications 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 varied types of printmaking, constructing robots and arising with eclectic artwork initiatives.
Jonathan Fernandez (Normal Design Monitor): Jonathan Fernandez is a visible growth artist primarily based in Los Angeles. As a baby, he was impressed to attract and paint due to his love for tv reveals and flicks. In faculty he jumped round totally different profession paths however all the time discovered time to attract and paint. Thankfully, 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, Calif. 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 varied corporations 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 vigorous creativeness influenced by the cartoons that captivated him in his youth. Rodriguez honed his creative expertise at ArtCenter Faculty of Design, the place he found the ability of visible storytelling. Whereas working in animation has been his long-time objective, his best ambition is to entertain and encourage younger audiences in the identical method as storytellers have achieved for him.
Following within the footsteps of many others, alumni of the Writing Program at present working at Nickelodeon embrace; Josh Brown (story editor, Child Shark’s Large Present), Angel Hobbs (employees author, That Lady Lay Lay), Sarah Allan (author, Large Nate), Jeff Sayers (employees author, The Loud Home) and extra. Moreover, Program Alumnus author/producer Sameer Gardezi, in collaboration along with his brainchild Break the Room, works carefully with NWP designing and architecting progressive curricula for the workshops and writers’ rooms workouts.
Alumni of the Artist Program embrace Roger Hernandez (CG Generalist, Large Nate), Dominique Evans (Visible Growth 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 Beneath Years), Marisa Torres (Visible Growth Artist, Santiago of the Seas & Rock, Paper, Scissors), Jake Kim (Storyboard Revisionist, Shimmer & Shine). Exterior of Nickelodeon, alumni of each Applications have gone on to create reveals and maintain employees positions at each main studio and community.
For extra data on the Nickelodeon Writing Program, go to @NickWriting on Twitter, @NickWritingProgram on Instagram or nickwriting.com; and @nick_artists on Instagram or nickartist.com for the Artist Program. The subsequent submission interval opens July 1, 2023 for each Applications.
Extra particulars relating to Paramount World’s range and inclusion commitments might be discovered at paramount.com/inclusion-2021/introduction. For extra data on Content material for Change, go to contentforchange.paramount.com.
