Today, Comedy Central announced its partnership with Yes, And… Laughter Lab to launch the all-new digital series The Drawing Board, which will highlight the work of rising new voices in animation. The first short premiered today (Tuesday, April 11) across Comedy Central Animated social platforms, with additional content rolling out in the coming weeks.
The first featured creators in the program will include Maddie Brewer, Noah Cutwright and the trio Xano Cuervo, Mario Garza & Daniel Napoli.
The program aims to broaden animation opportunities in the comedy field for underrepresented talent, with a focus on BIPOC, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ people and women, and to reinforce Comedy Central’s commitment to using its platforms to help develop inclusive voices in the world of animation. Yes, And… Laughter Lab (YALL; yesandlaughterlab.com) helped identify several of these creators, to showcase new and necessary voices for the Comedy Central audience and the industry at large.
Comedy Central has been a sponsor of YALL’s incubation lab for diverse comedic writers, animators and performers since its founding in 2019. Since then, Comedy Central has worked with a number of YALL creators including comedian/animator Joey Clift, and the team behind the Comedy Central digital series Momo’s Amerika (Ayman Samman, Abdallah Nabil, & Yusef Zeidan).
The first episode of The Drawing Board, “Squeezed Between Two Bros on a Flight to Florida” by Maddie Brewer, launched today as a Comedy Central Animated YouTube Premiere. Episodes will also roll out weekly across the Animated Facebook & Instagram, as well as Comedy Central Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & TikTok.
More about The Drawing Board featured creators:
Maddie Brewer (maddiebrewer.com) wants to make weird movies for the weirdos of the world. She is a freelance director, animator, illustrator, and writer based in Los Angeles. She grew up in Wrigleyville, in Chicago, and she’s influenced by the time she spent there wandering around thrift stores, going to local shows and hitting up the Golden Nugget diner in the middle of the night. She’s passionate about creating funny, surreal worlds and her strange and character-centric storytelling aims to highlight the comedy inherent in being alive. She’s worked with clients such as Bento Box, Adult Swim, VICE, Blink Inc, Grin Machine, Augenblick, Nickelodeon and more.
Noah Cutwright (noahcutwright.com) is an award-winning cartoonist and director. Cutwright grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended The Cleveland Institute of Art to earn his BFA in Animation. He has previously worked for various companies such as Cartoon Network Studios, Adult Swim and Disney, and is a co-founder of Imaginex Animation Studios, LLC, an animation studio that has produced work for various clients, notably, Niles Abston’s animated short film, The Opener, which Cutwright also directed.
In 2018, his film, Floyd was a semi-finalist in the 45th Student Academy Awards and received various other awards and nominations. Cutwright is also the creator of the award-winning comic strip and web series The Carsons, which recently raised over $16,000 on Kickstarter to fund an independently produced half hour pilot episode, written and directed by Cutwright, which is currently in production.
Xano Alexander Cuervo (xanostudios.com) is a Latin American writer/director born and raised in Miami. His short film The Risk Takers was awarded the Grand Jury Award by The New York International Film Festival and Best Episodic at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival among many others. His animated series Capitan Churro was selected as a showcase winner for Yes, And… Laughter Lab. His next project is the action-thriller feature film Restoration Night.
In 2020 Cuervo co-launched Latin Hollywood Group. In addition to his filmmaking career, Xano has also worked in post-production for clients like Apple, Meta, Honey (acquired by PayPal), ESPN, Warner Brothers and many others.
Mario Garza (mariodoeskoolshiit.com) is a Mexican writer & director based in L.A. His work focuses on coming-of-age stories that tackle acceptance and validation in controversial, unexplored worlds inspired by his nomadic adventures. His latest projects include writing and & directing his first feature film in Spain, shooting a Warner Bros. Discovery proof of concept teaser for his second feature film, signing a development deal for an episodic series about truffle dealing and developing an animated project for Comedy Central.
Garza’s work has earned him accolades at Oscar qualifying festivals such as Slamdance, Filmquest, Laliff, HollyShorts, Oaxaca Film Festival and London Film Festival, among many others. He has lived all around the globe while creating big budget advertising campaigns for brands like Meta, Nike and Apple featuring Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson, football superstar Neymar Jr, Latin Grammy Winner Becky G and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville.
Daniel Napoli (a.k.a. DaniNaps) is an animator, story artist and digital media designer. Having grown up on cartoons and video games, it’s his dream come true to be making animated content for a living. He got his start on short form, gag-oriented animations, and has worked with many studios, organizations and individuals throughout a varied career. Since then, he’s accrued experience in building and managing creative teams, most recently, acting as design lead and animator on a short for Sesame Street, 7 Busy Beavers, creative director on educational presentation The Fast-Track to Net Zero and creative lead on original videogame IP Muffins On Stream.
