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Asians in Animation’s 2022 Year in Review: CELEBRATING ANOTHER BIG YEAR AND BECOMING A NON-PROFIT!12/18/2022
 As our second year as an organization is coming to a close, we are so excited to reveal.... WE’RE A NON-PROFIT! In 2022, Asians in Animation became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We can now accept tax-deductible donations and we are so excited to continue championing Asian storytelling in animation. For all who have supported us along the way, we cannot thank you enough! We cannot wait to create more opportunities for our members – such as:
OUR COMMUNITY Our member base grew by 82% from last year – we currently have 3725+ members across 52 countries! We also got the chance to collaborate with WONDERFUL partners such as the teams at Netflix Animation, Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Pictures Animation, Nickelodeon Animation, GKIDS, Apple TV+, Skydance Animation, Tonko House, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney Television Animation, Atomic Cartoons, Paramount Animation, Warner Bros. Discovery (Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation) - and fellow advocacy organizations Asia Society of Southern California, BRIC Foundation, Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE), DiverseToons, Trojan Horse was a Unicorn, and Rise Up Animation.
The Asians in Animation Writers’ Group (AIA WG), led by Saira Umar, went full steam ahead! In 2022:
We are so proud of our writers and their achievements this year – congratulations to all!  The AIA WG also hosted in-person gatherings and 12 special guest speakers: Angela Entzminger (Writer, Nickelodeon Animation), Kendall Michele Haney (Story Editor, Nickelodeon Animation; Host of Typin’ Toons Podcast), Annie Arjarasumpun (Script Coordinator, DreamWorks Animation), Sacsha Paladino (Showrunner, “Mira: Royal Detective”), Jeanette Lara (Writer, Moonbug), Cassie Soliday (Writer; Host of Ink and Paint Folk Podcast), Olivia Stark (Current Series, Skydance Animation), Mikki Crisostomo (Writer, “The Owl House”, Karla Shropshire (Writer, “The Loud House”), Joon Chung (Writer, 9Story), Sati Kaur (Writer, NBCUniversal), and Vivian Lee (Writer, “Invincible”). Thank you to all of these incredible guests for sharing their insights on the industry and how to navigate the wonderful world of writing for animation!
OUR TEAM
Our team has grown to over 140 volunteers across North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia – covering more than ten time zones! We have also had 16 internal promotions, ending the year with a 17-person Executive Board and a total of 42 volunteers serving in roles coordinator-level and up. We are overjoyed to keep adding to our leadership team and we look forward to expanding our community leadership roster in the new year! On the other hand, two of our founders “graduated” from our leadership team this year: Brandon Bui and Olivia Stark. Both originating the roles of Creative Chairs, they were instrumental members of the team from day one - building the foundations for the content that live on our social media platforms and paving the way for more important conversations about Asian animated media and the future of our industry. Brandon is now working with the creatives in development at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Olivia joins Joshua Kwan on our Advisory Board, continuing her journey in Current Series and Development at Skydance Animation. They both hand off the Creative Team reins to Saira Umar and Alice Jiang, who have stepped into the roles of Creative Chair and Creative Director respectively. More exciting team news includes more community support and more volunteer support. We have added three new teams in addition to our Community, External Relations, and Creative Teams – Communications under the guidance of Michelle Honeyman (Chair, Communications), Sara Marigomen (Director, Communications), and Sarah Liu (Director, Marketing), Artistic Advancement under Emily Schield (Director, Artistic Advancement), and Membership under Tiffany Yu (Director, Membership). All of these departments are excited to further support our community, whether by lending an ear for career development or serving as the point of contact for any member's need. Leading the support of our volunteers, Andrea Kutcher (Head of Operations) and Dani Yuan (Assoc. Director, Volunteers) have been building out the volunteer experience from start to finish. The Operations team has grown to support not just volunteers, but recruiting and education as well, particularly focusing on specialized training that will give volunteers opportunities to practice industry and production management-related skills. Other 2023 plans from this team include a focus on internal talent development through mentorship and to keep promoting more of our volunteers into leadership roles and cultivating a creative-forward environment for growth. We had 9 volunteers break into the animation industry this year alone! A BIG thank you to our whole team for their incredible work this year – 2022 would not have been possible without you! OUR FUTURE Looking to 2023, our number one priority is taking care of all of our members. The future of animated storytelling is right here - at Asians in Animation! We hope to continue fostering a safe space for creativity, in addition to organic mentorship and more opportunities to create - together. It’s been a huge year thanks to you – our community. We are honoured to support you and your career and we can’t thank you enough for your passion, love, and constant inspiration you provide to us every day. Here’s to thriving and more inspir-Asian in 2023! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! The Asians in Animation “AnimAsians” Team Brandon Bui • Lexie Chu • Joshua Kwan • Olivia Stark • Mason Tran • Nanami Yokota • Whitney Hii • Alisha Syed • Katie Dizon • Saira Umar • Alice Jiang • Michelle Honeyman • Sara Marigomen • Sarah Liu • Tiffany Yu • Emily Schield • Andrea Kutcher • Dani Yuan KEEP UP WITH US WEBSITE • INSTAGRAM • FACEBOOK • TWITTER • YOUTUBE GET INVOLVED • VOLUNTEER ART CREDITS: Holiday Card Illustration – Lauren Gregorio Backgrounds – Ananya Sridhar, Gaby de la Cruz, Mikoto Watanabe Illustration Supervisor – Deeya Chaturvedi Character Art – Brenda Do Character Supervisor – Aroona Khiani Graphic Design – Juris Tungpalan, Saira Umar Graphic Supervisor – Asmita Chitale Creative Director – Alice Jiang Creative Chair – Saira Umar Comments are closed.
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