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Lucy Heavens

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Lucy Heavens in 2024

Lucy Heavens is a South African television writer and actress. Heavens has a background in playwriting, comedy, performance and voice over work mainly in animation and cartoons. Heavens is a former winner of the Disney-Triggerfish Storylab, a development incubator for writers in Africa.[1]

Alongside Nic Smal, she is the co-creator of the musical comedy TV series, Kiff and serves as an executive producer and writer for the series, in addition to writing and producing songs and voicing Helen and Miss Tulane.[2]

Early life

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Heaven's comedy inspirations are The Simpsons, Monty Python, SpongeBob SquarePants and Animaniacs.[3] As a child, Heavens amassed a collection of self-recorded VHS tapes of The Simpsons.[4] Heavens' grandmother contributed to the collection by taping and mailing VHS tapes of DuckTales from Australia (unavailable in South Africa at the time) to Heavens in Cape Town.[5]

In high school absurdism, Kafka, existentialism, and her continued love of comedy and cartoons led Heavens to study drama and playwriting.[6]

Career

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Heavens has written for shows such as Supa Strikas, Moosebox, Space Chickens in Space, Love Monster, and The Mighty Ones.[2] Heavens co-wrote and performed the play, EurAfrica, which was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, emerging as the Fleur du Cap People's Choice Award in 2007.[7]

In 2016, her animated project, Wormholes, was selected for Storylab, an African development incubator led by the Walt Disney Animation Studios and Triggerfish Animation Studios.[8] Wormholes is about three teen cosmic worms who adventure through wormholes to the far reaches of the Zooniverse, and help all manner of creatures deal with anything from planetary threats to "boring meanies."[9]

Heavens has exclusively worked in animation except for a brief stint for two years in London writing on late night comedy panel shows.[6] The limitations of working and forging her career in Heavens' native South Africa where budgets for animation shows were extremely limited forced Heavens to wear many different hats from producing, to directing ad voice acting to keep costs low at the studios. She credits these years of cutting her teeth as a producer/writer on extremely low budget projects as experiences that equipped her with the necessary skills to run her own show.[6]

Heavens met storyboard artist and animator Nic Smal at a studio in Cape Town where they bonded over similar comedic, animation, and story sensibilities.[3] Heavens and Smal's collaboration on Kiff started when Smal started to re-shape an initial crude image of a squirrel named Kiff, originally drawn and imagined up by Heavens.[6]

Hand drawn 2D Animation is Heavens preferred style of animation that best complements her writing voice. She has cited 2D animation as a medium that allows for greater freedom to fine tune faces and expressions.[10]

Heavens and Smal have noted that ‘Kiff" is a slang word for ‘cool’ in South Africa, and they were inspired by the people and places they experienced when growing up in Cape Town, with many of the characters of Kiff reflecting the personalities of their own family and friends.[11] Heavens applied to the Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa for funding to parlay a trip to Los Angeles into a stopover at KidScreen in Miami where she would have the opportunity to pitch Kiff.[6]

In 2021 Heavens was a presenter at the Annecy Animation Festival on the original programming that was coming out of African animation in collaboration with Disney EMEA.[12] Alongside other African creators at Annecy, Heavens' presentation on the first sneak-peek of Kiff was another significant indicator of a growing trend to pull talent from Africa's animation industry for major content platforms in the US.[13]

In an October 2023 interview Heavens named "Blooper Quest" and "The Sound of Helen" as her favorite Kiff episodes.[14]

Heavens has an overall development deal with Disney and will develop new animated shows, films, shorts and specials for the Disney Channel & Disney+. The deal includes a second animated series for Disney Channel currently in development pending for a series green light.[15]

Heavens is currently working on the third season of Kiff, which was recently announced as officially renewed by Disney.[16]

Critical reception

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American magazine Variety named Heavens, along with her animating partner Nic Smal, as one of the top ten animators to watch in 2021.[17] The New York Times placed Kiff in the top 50 best TV shows and movies to watch on Disney+.[18]

Heavens was nominated for two Children's and Family Emmy Awards in the Main Title and Voice Directing for an Animated Series categories for her work on Kiff.[19]

References

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  1. ^ "Triggerfish Story Lab Announces Top Stories from Continent-Wide Search". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  2. ^ a b "Lucy Heavens | Producer, Writer, Actress". IMDb. Retrieved 2024-09-09.
  3. ^ a b Zahed, Ramin (2021-09-14). "'Kiff' Creators Lucy Heavens & Nic Smal Forge a Path from Cape Town to Disney Channel". www.animationmagazine.net. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  4. ^ "The Creators of Disney's Kiff Share Their Inspirations for the New Animated Series". Yahoo News. 2023-03-08. Retrieved 2024-04-24.
  5. ^ "The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast : Nic Smal and Lucy Heavens - Kiff". bancroftbros.libsyn.com. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Lucy Heavens: Writer, Showrunner, Producer". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  7. ^ "The announcement of the winners of the 2007 Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards". wine.co.za. 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  8. ^ Thill, Scott (2015-12-16). "Triggerfish's Story Lab Announces 8 African Winners". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  9. ^ Al Jazeera English Network (June 13, 2016). "Pan-African Triggerfish Story Lab Scores With Short For Ed". Modern Ghana. Retrieved August 26, 2024.
  10. ^ "'Kiff': A Cape-Town-Inspired Buddy Comedy that Captures the Soul of Hand-Drawn". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  11. ^ Rosario, Alexandra Del (2021-06-17). "'Kiff': Disney Channel Greenlights Animated Series From South African Creators Lucy Heavens & Nic Smal". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  12. ^ Staff, A. O. L. (2021-06-17). "New African Series 'Kizazi Moto' and 'Kiff' Headline Disney EMEA's Annecy Presentation". www.aol.com. Retrieved 2024-09-09.
  13. ^ Mureithi, Carlos (2021-06-25). "Disney and Cartoon Network are finally embracing African animation". Quartz. Retrieved 2024-09-09.
  14. ^ DTVA Digital (November 10, 2023). #Kiff creators Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal play a little game called BFF Quiz! #DisneyKiff #KiffSweep #NYCC #NYCC23 #NYCC223 #NewYorkComicCon. Twitter. Retrieved on November 11, 2023
  15. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: KIFF CREATORS INK OVERALL DEVELOPMENT DEAL AT DISNEY TVA & DISNEY+". Tumblr. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  16. ^ "Kiff Scores Season Three Renewal As Part Of Nic Smal And Lucy Heavens Extended Overall Development Deal Alongside Second Show In Development". Tumblr. Retrieved 2024-10-11.
  17. ^ "Variety's 10 Animators to Watch in 2021 Includes Artists Working in Stop-Motion, Graphic Design and Puppetry". Variety. 2021-10-14. Retrieved 2024-08-28.
  18. ^ Tobias, Scott (2024-09-06). "The 50 Best TV Shows and Movies to Watch on Disney+ Right Now". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  19. ^ Schneider, Michael (2023-11-02). "Children's & Family Emmys 2023 Nominees Announced, as NATAS Works Out Ceremony Plans (FULL LIST)". Variety. Retrieved 2024-04-24.
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