Rising Stars of Animation

Winfrey graduated UCLA in 1997 with a BA in English, then studies animation in the school’s graduate degree program. At the same time, she worked on both the “South Park” series and the theatrical release. Her 2000 thesis project, “Muffinfilms,” and her subsequent project, “Big Bunny,” were immensely popular with online fans. “I ended up selling T-shirts, DVD’s and art prints over the Internet,” she says. “I was making a decent living just doing that.”

For the Nick show, Winfrey is sticking with the same voice cast, story structure and overall visual design as the web cartoons that made her popular. Additionally, as per the web cartoons, she’s composing all the original songs herself. “I like to write. This has been very satisfying for me because I still write a lot of songs, which are similar to my background in poetry. So it’s a good fit.”

Rob Boutilier
Creator, Studio B’s Look What My Sister Dragged In

A strange-looking hairless cat is the real-life inspiration behind Rob Boutilier’s new series Look What My Sister Dragged In, which started its life as a Studio B short and now is in development with Canada’s YTV cabler. The show centers on an evil hairless cat who torments a young boy named Coop, whose sister is completely unaware of the feline’s nefarious motives. “I created the characters in 2003,” says Boutilier. “After eight years of marriage, my wife and I bought a hairless cat, and I was always amazed by people’s reaction to it – these cats are very alien-like. I had the idea that if this cat was truly evil he’d probably try to do me in at some point, and that’s what the cat is doing to the boy in the short.”