Name: Brianne Drouhard

Hometown: Othello, WA

Publication:
The Teenage Survival Handbook

Born: 1980

Winning Ben Wicks Award entry:

• Cover
• Dr. Jekyl, Mr. Hyde
• Getting Your Licence
• Crossroads
• Suicide

Current:

• Bob Hahn
• Rachel Loveless
• Raphael Pirard

Past:

• Alison Acton
• Ryan Browne
• Gabriel Choquette
• Stephen Downer
• Brianne Drouhard
• Jeff Epp
• Henry Fong
• Tanya Francis
• Aaron Given
• Rob Jones
• Al Kang
• Ian Maclean
• Greg Moran
• Mike Myhre
• Eric Peladeau
• Tyler Schroeder
• Rob Seddon
• June Um

Brianne was born in Othello, WA. She grew up in the small farming town spending much of her free time drawing, sketching, and talking to cows. Her parents are farmers of the area and raise some gigantic mutant potatoes. She also has a younger brother who helped form her odd sense of humor.

Brianne has always had a strong interest in animation and helped her local high school start up an animation class for the students there. Art teacher extraordinaire, Mr. Michael Lewis, currently teaches the class. Brianne received a scholarship from the NFAA (National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts) in 1999 for her short film, "Yippie the Accident Prone Dog". She was then able to attend California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts) for character animation. She spent her third summer in Los Angeles interning at independent animation studio July Films, on their first feature film, "My Little World". After finishing four individual student films, she completed the character animation program with a BFA in 2002. After graduation, she spent a year animating for videogames and has done freelance for various companies.

Brianne would like to use the Ben Wicks Award to continue making her own independent animated films and illustrations. She is still very passionate about animation, even though the animation industry is having a rough time at the moment. It would be a dream to be able to share her films and creations with others.