Vivienne Medrano (born October 28, 1992),[3] also known by her online alias VivziePop, is an American
YouTuber, animator, writer, director, producer, and voice actress. She is best known as the creator of the
musical television series Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. She also created the
webcomicZooPhobia.[4][5][6]
Career
Early work
Prior to joining
YouTube, Medrano did assistant work on a thesis
horror comedy film by Zach Bellissimo titled Blenderstein, in 2011.[7]
Before launching her current channel "VivziePop", Medrano launched her first channel, "xZoOPhobiAx", which features animatics for ZooPhobia.
Medrano launched her YouTube channel under the screen name "VivziePop" in 2012, building a dedicated online audience, who enjoyed her
fanwork and original creations.[8][9] Also in 2012, she started a webcomic titled ZooPhobia, which ran until 2016, ending so that she could find more time to develop Hazbin Hotel.[10][11][12] Medrano directed her first short
animated film, titled "The Son of 666" in 2013.[11] Medrano released her fourth year thesis film entitled "Timber" in 2014, for which she won a Dusty Award in "Outstanding Achievement in Character Animation".[13][14] Medrano named the film after the
song of the same name by
Pitbull and
Kesha, and its score contained homages to the song as well.[15] In October 2014, she released an animated music video for the song
"Die Young" by Kesha, which accumulated over 50 million views by October 2019.[12] As a result, she became "relatively well-known" online for her animation and artwork, some of which she shared on her channel.[16]
Medrano founded the
animation studioSpindleHorse Toons, under which the pilot for Hazbin Hotel, the
pilot and first season for Helluva Boss, and several animated shorts would be released.[19] Medrano serves as the director, writer and character designer for SpindleHorse Toons.[20] In an interview with
Cartoon Brew, she said that much of the Hazbin Hotel pilot was funded by money from her Patreon, rather than income from YouTube's algorithm.[8] The company
Horseless Cowboy assisted Medrano with voice casting during the first season of Helluva Boss, with
Richard Steven Horvitz serving as the voice director.[21] Cartoon Brew described her as a "paragon of indie success in animation".[22]
In October 2019, the pilot episode of Hazbin Hotel was released on Medrano's YouTube channel.[23] In November 2019, the
pilot of Helluva Boss was released on her YouTube channel as well.[24] In July 2020, Medrano released an animated music video for Hazbin Hotel called "Addict", featuring the Silva Hound song of the same name.[25][26] In August 2020, Hazbin Hotel was picked up for a full series by
A24.[27][28]Animation Magazine said that A24 was taking a "bold step" by picking up the series.[29] In 2023, scholar Ben Mitchell described Medrano's Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss as series which were "sensationally popular" and an effective use of Patreon to subsidize the show's art "through monthly tiered payments".[30]
On September 30, 2020, Medrano released
an animated short film titled "Bad Luck Jack", based on ZooPhobia.[31] The short was nominated and won for a
Ursa Major Award in the "Best Dramatic Short Work" category.[32][33] The short was also listed as a "Recommended Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work" on the Ursa Major Award website.[34]
Other work
From 2017 to 2019, she worked as an animator on Nico Colaleo's
DreamWorksTV series, Too Loud.[11] She called her experience on the series "a delight."[35] She also worked as a character designer on the series.[36] In March 2021, it was reported that she was a partner of Redefine Entertainment, a management company formed by Jairo Alvarado, Tony Gil, and Max Goldfarb.[37][38]
Personal life
Medrano was born in
Frederick, Maryland and is a
Salvadoran-American.[11] She became interested in animation as a child when she watched the film Bambi.[9] She began using art programs such as
MS Paint in third grade.[9][5] Her early art was heavily influenced by Invader Zim. Medrano moved to
New York City and began attending School of Visual Arts in September 2010 and would later graduate in 2014.[9][5] She is
bisexual.[39] She grew up
Presbyterian, and says she remembers going to church and questioning a lot of stories in the
Bible —
Adam and Eve and
Lucifer, in particular.[40]
In a January 2024 interview following the release of Hazbin Hotel on
Amazon Prime Video, she described herself as a "queer woman on the internet who made something popular", and related herself to her character
Charlie Morningstar, saying that both she and Charlie are in a "position of fighting uphill battles to just have our dreams exist."[41] Previously, Medrano had described herself, on social media, as a "proud 'fiery' latina," and said that
Vaggie was the character she related to most, saying that Vaggie and Charlie "feel like sides of [her]self."[42]
^"Dusty Festival: Winners List". SVA BFA Film.
School of Visual Arts.
Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021. See the list of winners in 2011 which list "Blanderstein" and "Destiny for the Birds", and 2014, which lists "Timber".
^
abShort, Dan (October 5, 2020).
"ZooPhobia: Bad Luck Jack". Animated Views.
Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
^"Voting". Ursa Major Awards.
Archived from the original on March 1, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
^
abCubilas, Sean (November 26, 2020).
"Hazbin Hotel: 10 Funniest Lines in the Show, Ranked". Screen Rant.
Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2021. From Vivienne Medrano, the talented artist behind the drawings and animations on the YouTube channel, Vivziepop, Hazbin Hotel portrays all of the quirky, ambitious, and dark humor that Vivienne has become synonymous with.
^Baron, Reuben (December 2, 2019).
"Adult Animation Is Better Than Ever - So Why Does It Draw Ridicule?". CBR.
Archived from the original on December 2, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2021. Independent animator Vivziepop has lit up YouTube with her pilots Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, which have earned some warranted criticism for their immature, edgy humor but are at least clear labors of love from an animation standpoint.