Writer TBA Nick Show 🤫 The Ghost & Molly McGee 👻 GLORIA BUENROSTRO IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND 🚲🫔THE CROSSBOW OF DESTINY '24 🏹 THE INVENTORS EYE 💫
Rep: Gotham
GLORIA BUENROSTRO IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND is getting a paperback! They even asked me to whip up some bonus material which includes Discussion Questions 🧠 and a Playlist 🎶
When developing Encanto, Disney originally reached out to Vietnamese writers to speak on their intergenerational trauma but decided to go a different direction when shit got way too dark
August '21, I got an email saying that Warner Bros was going to buy my show back from Netflix. Sam Register himself signed off within 24 hrs of reviewing the pitch materials.
April of '22, the deal closed. That same week, the merger was announced. Today, my project sits there.
After Warner Bros took various cost-cutting measures including turning movies into tax write-offs and refused to pay actors & writers for months, David Zaslav’s 2023 pay package is now at $49.7M, a 26.5% increase from 2022.
(Source: )
I’d love to read an oral history of how this came to be. It’s like Mattel shrugged their shoulders and let the writers go buckwild with their characters. It’s WILD I tell ya
I miss working in an animation studio. Wandering around, popping into dimly-lit artist' cubicles gushing about whatever it is they are working on. Leaving doodles on unsuspecting whiteboards. Board pitches that have the room in tears. And the laughs. Lord. I miss the LAUGHS.
I'd get a jolt of electricity running through me witnessing a fan's reaction in real time. God. That's what I loved about Comic Con. The fans who were just excited to geek out about their favorite show and I was there, as an exec, to geek along with them.
Please consider the path of a Creative Executive! I wish more people knew what we do (errr... DID in my case). The biz needs smart, creative, passionate animation folks like you on the exec side!
apropos of nothing, I worry about the future of children's TV. Everything is expected to be dumbed down, devoid of nuance. There's a real fear of allowing kids to draw their own conclusions, to parse layered stories / characters.
I BEG you. Respect your audience. Respect kids.
S&P notes can be silly and yeah, infuriating at times. But in my experience, the department isn’t a panel of uptight puritans trying to impose moral order. They’re just doing a job that’s been assigned to them, collecting a paycheck without trying to get anyone in trouble.
Season 3 had some of my favorite scripts. A story about Libby struggling with writer's block, a Purim holiday special, a revolt against the recorder, and Molly helping rekindle Mr. Pham's love of teaching.
#PeekBehindThePages
Crushed we never got to see them through.
Unfortunately, without the robust marketing support we had at launch, our second drop on Disney+ in December 21 did not perform as well. Even though our third drop improved, by early June 2022, it was decided that the show would not continue onto a Season 3. It was pencils down.
I don't know what to make of all this, but I do know that kids need rich, authentic, original stories. I got in this business to make content for them. They're an important audience and I'd argue, the most important audience. They deserve animation. We can't leave them behind.
I was in the ER yesterday when I happened to hear a Vietnamese couple struggling to communicate with the security guard. I hesitated to leap in because my Vietnamese is atrocious, but I knew I had to do something
But that year, when a fan would ask me a version of that question, I'd put my fingers to my lips, and slip them a rolled up Korra poster. The very first artwork of a new ATLA series.
Someone asked me this weekend why I prefer to write for children. The answer is simple: I believe you never love something with your whole heart as much as you did when you're a kid.
I’ve been thinking a lot about media we consume and the current climate of what gets a platform and what doesn’t.
The reality is, I don’t think shows like Midnight Gospel are ever going to get massive numbers… but they are vital to our souls.
@a_h_reaume
I wrote a memoir that celebrates exactly this. My ex of 6 years and my wife are best friends. In fact, my wife is staying with my ex’s family this week helping take care of their newborn
Bluey is the No.2 most watched show on all platforms in the US with 1.3 billion minutes viewed 🧡 🇺🇸 🇦🇺 It's an incredible achievement by an incredible team. All made under one roof in Brisbane, Australia 🏡 🦘
#bluey
I was part of a bridal party where I didn’t know a single member of the wedding party besides the bride. Pics came back. I’m standing so far away from everyone in the group shot. So awkward.
My inbox has been blowing up ever since.
I'd love to whip up a powerpoint deck that explains the Do's & Don'ts of pitching an animated series (with children as the target audience) to development execs.
I don't claim to have all the answers, but I think it would help those who have no idea where to start.
I’ve been reading posts wanting creatives to post more about failures along with their successes to show that the journey to a final product isn't a smooth straight shot. If it helps anyone else out there, I’d like to share my most recent stumble with you.
It's not official until you post a Publishers Weekly announcement!
I'm writing a book. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN A LOVE STORY set to hit shelves in Fall of 2020.
I can't wait for you to read it!
We wanted to tease a sneaky sneaky morsel before officially announcing the series. Bryan whipped up a beautiful piece of artwork to make into a poster at SDCC
To me, this element is crucial in the stories I want to tell. Giving moments for characters to think about their decisions and the consequences of their decisions. I think introducing kids to "ma" is essential.
For years and years, fans would come up to the Nick booth and ask, "When is the next Avatar?" and for years I could only shrug my shoulders and say, "I dunno, man. I really don't."
I sent the animatic of the development project to my childhood buddy who is an Earthbound fan. I had no idea he was going to show his youngest.
He requested to watch it FOUR times. A 22 min animatic! That’s crazy.
This is it. This is who we create for. Don’t lose sight of that.
my toddler Miss Havisham
🤝
refuses to change out of her disgusting dress, wanders around the house rambling incoherently to herself, wears only one shoe, leaves breakfast uneaten on the table
This is already happening to writers in animation. Staffed rooms are practically non existent. It’s all freelance all the time. Writers are losing their insurance because they can’t bank the hours.
It’s not okay.
Irish Goodbye / French Exit = leaving a social gathering without saying goodbye.
Vietnamese Farewell = 20 mins of trying to tell your aunt you’ll never be able to eat this much fruit, but ultimately giving up, and bringing home an entire box of rambutan.
@Nicole_Cliffe
A prestigious internship required that I had to be earning college credit (I already graduated). I asked a professor to forge her signature on some forms so I could apply. I stayed there for an entire year before my boss said, "Wait a sec. Is this bullshit? Whatever, I like you."
@clairevtran
"Sun loved waking up to the smell of boiling anchovies, to her it was one of warmth and home. To me it was of hot compost."
My fists unconsciously balled.
#TheGhostAndMollyMcGee
was more than a show more than a paycheck. It was my first staff writer gig all thanks to a pair of showrunners and a story editor who took a chance on me.
I got to work on a beautiful, hilarious show that had something to say. What more could you ask for?
We hope that
#TheGhostandMollyMcGee
has brought you joy and that you always keep a little Molly McGee in your spirit as you “enhappify” your family, friends, communities, and world.
I love when my kid gets home from preschool, kicks off her sandals, grabs a juice box and asks, "Daddy, did another animatic come in today that we can watch together?"
Hey boo crew! The
#MonsterHigh
episode I wrote, "Cleo in the Kitchen" premieres today! Grab some gum-boo and tuck in.
A story about putting your pride aside to help out a friend. I had a blast cooking this one up.
Thank you to
@SheaFontana
for letting me play in your world!
If you’re a writer and you love plant and payoff, tying your A and B story together thematically, and were the kid who sniffed out symbolism in your high school English lit assignments -- lemme tell ya, you’re going to love therapy.
Action Pack is here! Catch it now on Netflix!
Thanks to:
-Our incredible writing team for bringing the action and laughs: Callie C. Miller, Merrill Hagan, Han-Yee Ling, Matt Wayne, Mercedes Valle, Marie Cheng, Brandon Hoang, Jeff Trammell, Jagjiwan Sohal, Jennifer Skelly,
It’s here! It’s finally here! My first ever cover reveal!
Here’s what will be forward-facing (🤞) on bookshelves on June 27, 2023.
GLORIA BUENROSTRO IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND
Illustrated by
@diananguyenart
with art direction
@mallorygrigg
them: when did you realize spite could be motivating?
me: when I signed up for track in middle school and people laughed at the thought of a 4’11” Viet kid running hurdles
SO YOUD THINK THAT THEY WOULD HAVE MADE NILES AS FRASIER’S TOTAL OPPOSITE - A BEER SWILLING BLUE COLLAR SPORTS FANATIC BUT THEY GO THE OPPOSITE ROUTE AND WROTE HIM EVEN MORE SNOOTIER AND UPTIGHT THAN HIS BROTHER AND THATS THE GENIUS OF FRASIER
@margotwood
Whenever I think about genre jumping I always think about one of writers from Nickelodeon's HEY DUDE who went on to write BAND OF BROTHERS.
no one told me that 90% of your time being a writer is just bumbling around the house in your bathrobe à la Miss Havisham muttering "Money... money... how am I gonna get me some money..."
But I got the couple and their little boy through intake until the hospital's Viet translator was able to take over.
I went back to my chair and I felt that familiar shame crept back. The shame that I could barely communicate in a language that I should have been able to.
I’ve been told I don’t celebrate my wins enough (hello fellow Viets!). But today I’m going to break entertainment's
#1
rule of “it’s not a thing until it’s a thing” by talking about a big win I got this week. Hopefully folks will find it informative as well. 🧵
Welp there we go - undiluted motivation to keep telling our stories.
If anyone needs me, I’ll be furiously pulling whiskey while writing this first draft.
Actor Peter Shinkoda, who played Nobu in Netflix’s Daredevil talks about how Jeph Loeb, the head of Marvel Television (at the time) forcibly cut his character’s original story arc because ‘nobody cares about Chinese people and Asian people’.
Absolutely appalling.
In another episode, Todd drops off a bunch of junk at Weird Larry's. I was on a mission to find a way to drop these random objects into future stories to hint that Todd was Scratch, but it didn't pan out...
Although I think the pyramid and the stars appear in "All in the Mind"?
No, I can’t talk about Avatar.
Yes, I’m bummed.
Yes, Bryan and Mike promised me the role of Jet.
Yes, they revoked that promise when I gouged myself with the prop hookswords.
Good morning, Ghost and Molly McGee fans! As an advocate of the behind-the-scenes DVD content of yore, I’m going to provide a mini oral history on “A Soda to Remember” and “I Wanna Dance with some Ollie.”
Stay tuned (toon’d?)!
In the back of my mind I felt a deep resentment to my father, who is the most stubborn individual to walk the earth, just decided to gave up speaking to me in Vietnamese when I was little. The one time in his life his stubbornness would have come in handy.
Yesterday I saved a woman from potentially drowning at a pool party. No screams, she was bobbing, and I noticed the distinct look of panic in her eyes.
And it was only a few days ago when I read this 🧵refreshing my “signs of drowning” knowledge. Twitter is great actually.
Today at
@cranebeachmass
my 9-year-old daughter nearly drowned while I was watching her, in full view of two life guard stations, on an uncrowded and overcast day. Drowning doesn’t look like drowning, and I hope a lot of people read this and remember the signs. 🧵
@chmurph
According the official D&D bestiary, this demon is actually an awkward middle schooler who needs to get from first period to second period, but is needs to hide his unintentional demon boner