Latest / For All Nerds Show / Exclusive Interview with Roye Okupe Creator of IYANU

Transcript

Exclusive Interview with Roye Okupe Creator of IYANU · For All Nerds Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, fan fam.
0:01
Speaker 2: On this episode, we welcome Roy Akoupe, an award winning filmmaker, author, speaker,
0:06
Speaker 2: and entrepreneur whose passion for comments and animation led him
0:10
Speaker 2: to create Iyanu, the best animated series on Cartoon Network
0:15
Speaker 2: in years.
0:27
Speaker 1: I've been doing that.
0:30
Speaker 3: Oh it's been it's been crazy, man, crazy good. You know,
0:35
Speaker 3: I'm just really grateful. Honestly, I'm very very you know,
0:39
Speaker 3: it works so hard for this. We worked, we work very,
0:43
Speaker 3: very very hard for this and for a very very
0:47
Speaker 3: long time. So yeah, I think I think grateful is
0:49
Speaker 3: the right term. And I just I really hope it
0:53
Speaker 3: does well. I feel like a lot of a lot
0:57
Speaker 3: of times in this industry, people want to see how
1:00
Speaker 3: something does before they give something else another chance, especially
1:03
Speaker 3: when it comes to you know, authenticity or characters are
1:07
Speaker 3: not you know, the regular things that we see on
1:10
Speaker 3: a day to day basis. So I'm really hoping it
1:12
Speaker 3: does well, really hoping it does well.
1:14
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And honestly, I feel like the recemption has
1:17
Speaker 2: been phenomenal. Like I was on the Big Fresh Junket
1:22
Speaker 2: where there was a bunch of us just asking a
1:24
Speaker 2: million questions, just seeing their responses online, like.
1:29
Speaker 1: All the you know, all the interviews you have been doing.
1:33
Speaker 2: I saw like a coverage on routers, like people have
1:36
Speaker 2: really been gravitating towards the YU. So I'm just how
1:40
Speaker 2: do you how do you feel about just how it's
1:43
Speaker 2: gone so far. I know you're like concerned, like you know,
1:47
Speaker 2: the higher ups got to see how it does, but like,
1:49
Speaker 2: how do you feel?
1:50
Speaker 4: Right again?
1:52
Speaker 3: I think homboard is the right word. Homboard is the
1:55
Speaker 3: right word. But I also feel I feel good. I'm
1:58
Speaker 3: not gonna lie to you. I'm not going to I
2:01
Speaker 3: think you know, two things can be true, right, You
2:04
Speaker 3: can be humble by something and you can also feel
2:06
Speaker 3: really good about it as well. I feel very good because,
2:10
Speaker 3: like I said, we've worked, We've worked very hard on this,
2:14
Speaker 3: and it's taking an entire village. I know sometimes people
2:19
Speaker 3: use that term very loose. Letl it takes a village
2:21
Speaker 3: to do X, Y and Z. This I can tell
2:24
Speaker 3: you for a fact. It took a lot of people
2:27
Speaker 3: working and even goes honestly way back to just even
2:30
Speaker 3: the way I was brought up. My parents, my mom
2:32
Speaker 3: and my dad have been you know, very very huge
2:36
Speaker 3: supporters of mine. Unfortunately, my dad passed away about a
2:42
Speaker 3: month and a half ago, now, you know. So to me,
2:47
Speaker 3: mixing tragedy and triumph, it was a very very hard
2:51
Speaker 3: battle to joggle. Honestly. You know, my dad died literally
2:57
Speaker 3: on the day the first day you have a premiered
2:59
Speaker 3: at Blood and that was the first time we opened
3:01
Speaker 3: it up to the public, and that.
3:03
Speaker 4: Was the day he passed away.
3:05
Speaker 3: And I remember, you know, find out in the hotel
3:08
Speaker 3: room in the morning, and then literally a couple of
3:10
Speaker 3: hours later, I had to go on a panel and
3:13
Speaker 3: I never actually I've never talked about this with anybody
3:16
Speaker 3: for whatever reason.
3:17
Speaker 4: So this is another exclusive.
3:19
Speaker 3: I get it, you know, you know, but I felt,
3:25
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go on a tangent.
3:26
Speaker 3: I just think it's a punt of people too. I
3:30
Speaker 3: felt I had to do it for him. I felt
3:34
Speaker 3: like I felt his love surrounding me in that moment.
3:40
Speaker 3: I felt he's you know, because my dad was one
3:43
Speaker 3: of the first people to tell me that, you know what,
3:45
Speaker 3: you can actually do this thing. Like I said, my
3:47
Speaker 3: parents were very very supportive. You know, my mom has
3:51
Speaker 3: MoMA's pretty much done everything she could possibly do to
3:54
Speaker 3: to support this. The same things I can't even share
3:57
Speaker 3: in the public eye. But I think going back to
4:02
Speaker 3: the premier at blood Corn that was a very difficult
4:06
Speaker 3: moment for me. And you know, every time I got
4:10
Speaker 3: a moment to step out of the spotlight on the
4:13
Speaker 3: panels or the signings. It really took a lot for
4:17
Speaker 3: me to get myself together. Because the morning that morning
4:20
Speaker 3: that I woke up, in my mind, I was like,
4:22
Speaker 3: I'm done. I'm not doing anything, but I sing to
4:26
Speaker 3: take two weeks off from every single thing. I just
4:29
Speaker 3: want to go away and just go and hide and
4:31
Speaker 3: so on corner and just cry for the next two weeks.
4:35
Speaker 3: But I felt a voice in my head saying, get up.
4:39
Speaker 3: You know you can do this. And you know also
4:41
Speaker 3: I'm a spiritual person as well, so I don't think
4:45
Speaker 3: things happen by accidents, even the bad things.
4:48
Speaker 4: You know, I counted all join.
4:50
Speaker 3: I take everything you know, as it comes, and I
4:54
Speaker 3: I just rely I rely on God to just give
4:56
Speaker 3: me the courage to strength to get through whatever it
4:59
Speaker 3: is that I need to go. So, yeah, the everything
5:02
Speaker 3: so far has happened has been a crazy roller coasta,
5:05
Speaker 3: but I think it's all been worth it. Basically, like
5:08
Speaker 3: you said, did the reactions that have been fantastic.
5:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
5:11
Speaker 2: And and first and form of my condolencence to you
5:14
Speaker 2: and your father and your family. And you mentioned, you know,
5:18
Speaker 2: having a voice that told you to keep going. What
5:21
Speaker 2: what was that voice? Do you think was that just yourself?
5:23
Speaker 2: Do you think that was something else?
5:25
Speaker 3: I mean, like I said, you know, I'm not ashamed
5:27
Speaker 3: to say that. You know, you know I am.
5:31
Speaker 4: Like I said, I'm a spiritual person or personal feel.
5:35
Speaker 3: You know, I I felt like there was something in it.
5:41
Speaker 3: I just felt like my dad was urging me to
5:45
Speaker 3: keep going. And you know, like I said, you know,
5:49
Speaker 3: as someone who you know tries to live every day
5:54
Speaker 3: of his life like Jesus would, that's that's really that's
5:58
Speaker 3: really the thing that gets me going every days, like
6:01
Speaker 3: I have to as best as I can try and
6:03
Speaker 3: live my life.
6:04
Speaker 4: In the way that Jesus would if he was here today.
6:07
Speaker 3: And for me, like I I I just felt like,
6:11
Speaker 3: like I said, in some weird way, my dad was
6:15
Speaker 3: giving me the encouragement, both my physical and my spiritual dad,
6:20
Speaker 3: pushing me on to go out and do what I
6:23
Speaker 3: needed to do. Because honestly, to you, I cannot I
6:26
Speaker 3: can't explain to you and I can't tell you how
6:28
Speaker 3: I was able to get through the first two weeks
6:31
Speaker 3: because there was a lot of stuff that I had
6:32
Speaker 3: to do that wasn't It wasn't just burke on. There
6:35
Speaker 3: was there was things that I had to do for
6:37
Speaker 3: the actual premier of the show and April fifth when
6:39
Speaker 3: it came out. So yeah, it was yeah, it was.
6:43
Speaker 3: It was a it was a tough period, but like
6:45
Speaker 3: I said, I felt my dad's presence with me and
6:47
Speaker 3: that's what That's what got me through.
6:49
Speaker 2: That's beautiful and you know, that's that's amazing. I mean
6:53
Speaker 2: to be honest, I don't know what I would have done.
6:55
Speaker 2: You know in that situation.
6:57
Speaker 4: It was hard. It was very hard.
6:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but that does lead me to understand just
7:04
Speaker 2: the strength of obviously parents, both your parents have trusted
7:08
Speaker 2: and invested so much into you and giving you give
7:12
Speaker 2: me strength and understanding. And also with your dad being
7:17
Speaker 2: you know, one of your rocks and your life. And
7:20
Speaker 2: I see that same thing repeating itself with Yanu because
7:23
Speaker 2: I know that you This was the love letter to
7:27
Speaker 2: your daughter, right you know, this is to give her
7:31
Speaker 2: the something that she can you guys can watch together,
7:33
Speaker 2: she can learn about Nigerian yarba culture and the history,
7:38
Speaker 2: and then you know, seeing the young new concept come
7:41
Speaker 2: to life, seeing from the graphic novel to now to
7:44
Speaker 2: this animation and it's so it's so alive.
7:49
Speaker 1: And it's so full of color and wondering, you know.
7:52
Speaker 2: And I mean that from figurative and literature literal standpoint.
7:55
Speaker 2: You know it I feel the father's love in it
8:00
Speaker 2: and in your in your thoughts.
8:02
Speaker 1: What is a father's role to his daughter or to
8:05
Speaker 1: his kids.
8:06
Speaker 3: I think, first of all, protector, you know, I think
8:11
Speaker 3: as as as a father or any parent, Well I'm
8:14
Speaker 3: talking from my perspective as it that my number one
8:16
Speaker 3: thing is to protect and it's not just even protecting
8:19
Speaker 3: just physically, because that's the first thing your mind goes to,
8:22
Speaker 3: or protecting emotionally as well, you know, I think it's
8:26
Speaker 3: very important, like mentally. You know, we're in a world
8:30
Speaker 3: now where, you know, even though we don't like to
8:33
Speaker 3: admit it, there's a lot of mental health issues. There's
8:37
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of people are going through so much.
8:40
Speaker 3: A lot of people don't want to talk about it,
8:41
Speaker 3: a lot of people keep it buried inside. So I
8:44
Speaker 3: think from a very young age, you know, it's important
8:47
Speaker 3: to not tr your kids and protect them mentally, spiritually
8:51
Speaker 3: and emotionally and just everything that has to do with
8:54
Speaker 3: up here. You know, there's there's things that.
8:58
Speaker 4: I know.
8:59
Speaker 3: You know, this is not to say something against my parents.
9:01
Speaker 3: My parents try, but unfortunately life is going to life
9:05
Speaker 3: is going to be like to everybody that comes on
9:08
Speaker 3: this planet, You're going to go through something. It's not
9:10
Speaker 3: always going to be good.
9:13
Speaker 4: You know.
9:13
Speaker 3: One of the things that, like I said, I I
9:16
Speaker 3: always try to to do as a father is like
9:19
Speaker 3: I said, just nature and protect my daughter and make
9:23
Speaker 3: sure that everything above here is right and for her
9:27
Speaker 3: to understand that it's okay to have emotions, it's okay
9:31
Speaker 3: to you know, to feel vulnerable, it's okay to be
9:35
Speaker 3: not okay you know as well. And this is funny
9:38
Speaker 3: of these are things that you see in literally you
9:41
Speaker 3: see you see these things in the f just literally.
9:44
Speaker 4: In the first episode, there's.
9:45
Speaker 3: A said with Leanna and Lori when I don't want
9:48
Speaker 3: to spoil too much for those that haven't seen its whey,
9:51
Speaker 3: there's there's something big that's about to happen, and she
9:54
Speaker 3: literally grabs her by her face and she's speaking to
9:57
Speaker 3: her directly in her eyes to me it's moments like that,
10:02
Speaker 3: because everybody has points or inflections in their life where
10:05
Speaker 3: there's a big moment and you know a parent being
10:08
Speaker 3: there to guide a child through that and protect them
10:10
Speaker 3: in that moment. Like I said, it's not always physical,
10:13
Speaker 3: it's I think it's even more powerful like the words
10:15
Speaker 3: like how you protect your child with your words, and
10:18
Speaker 3: it has more to do with what you don't see
10:21
Speaker 3: and how you always have to speak positive things into
10:24
Speaker 3: their life as opposed to negative things. So for me,
10:27
Speaker 3: like I said too, that's what's a roundway of answering
10:30
Speaker 3: the question.
10:30
Speaker 4: I think. I think your father's rule is to protect
10:33
Speaker 4: and not just physically.
10:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, And don't worry because I like your
10:37
Speaker 2: answers because this is this is the deeper things that
10:39
Speaker 2: people want to understand. A lot of people just give
10:42
Speaker 2: really short answers, but really to have that understanding of
10:46
Speaker 2: how your own experience informs how you understand your characters
10:50
Speaker 2: and how you understand the world, how even the characters
10:53
Speaker 2: are interpreting their world, that's very important.
10:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is absolutely because to me, I think people
10:59
Speaker 3: respond to things that are real and things that are
11:01
Speaker 3: just superficial, especially in this day, I need people where
11:05
Speaker 3: there's so much fake seduff social media, there's just so
11:08
Speaker 3: much post train and glass. I think people are going
11:12
Speaker 3: back to wanting to see things that are real. And
11:14
Speaker 3: for me, as a writer and as a creator obviously
11:18
Speaker 3: not producer and show runner, it's even more important that
11:23
Speaker 3: when I create these characters that they are field with
11:26
Speaker 3: experiences that people can relate to and say, man, I
11:29
Speaker 3: experienced that, or I know someone that has the experienced that.
11:33
Speaker 3: Like if you look at Iana for instance, right, she
11:36
Speaker 3: gets these powers in the first episode, and you would
11:40
Speaker 3: think that in a in a land you know, obviously
11:43
Speaker 3: fictional urban land for US, where people are struggling, or
11:48
Speaker 3: people who have been isolated because you know, there's the corrupt,
11:51
Speaker 3: the animals outside want to attack humanity, you would think
11:54
Speaker 3: she would be celebrated, but instead she's exiled. You know,
11:58
Speaker 3: she's feared because of power. And we see a lot
12:01
Speaker 3: of that today where it's like, you know, sometimes in
12:04
Speaker 3: different societies I'm not even just going to say here
12:06
Speaker 3: in the US, like just all over the world now,
12:09
Speaker 3: sometimes people fear the things they don't understand, and that fear,
12:14
Speaker 3: I'm going to stand sound like the Star Wars right now,
12:16
Speaker 3: that fear leads to hatred and the hatred plastic dark sid.
12:21
Speaker 4: But it's true, Actually, it's true.
12:24
Speaker 3: You know, when I think you know, a lot of
12:28
Speaker 3: things that are bad in this world starts from fear,
12:31
Speaker 3: either somebody being afraid of somebody, or being afraid of
12:33
Speaker 3: something that's going to happen, or afraid of something that's
12:36
Speaker 3: going to affect them, so they preemptively do something to
12:39
Speaker 3: try to fix that fear, as opposed to looking internally
12:42
Speaker 3: and actually asking you a question, why am I afraid
12:44
Speaker 3: of this person? Why am I afraid of because they're different?
12:48
Speaker 3: Why am I afraid of the fact that they're succeeding?
12:50
Speaker 3: Does they have anything to do with me? Internally? You
12:52
Speaker 3: have need to work on something that inside of me
12:55
Speaker 3: first required react outwardly. And I'm not saying fear is
12:59
Speaker 3: not a good Fear is a good response to, say,
13:01
Speaker 3: a snake on the ground, you don't want to go
13:04
Speaker 3: and catch it?
13:04
Speaker 4: Well, some people do.
13:06
Speaker 3: I'm afraid, Like I'm running with that's good fear, certain
13:12
Speaker 3: under Yeah, but you're back to the whole thing with
13:15
Speaker 3: with the and she's exiled and then she has to
13:18
Speaker 3: make a decision where it's like I have these powers,
13:22
Speaker 3: and I have something that's inside me, having lights inside
13:26
Speaker 3: me that can save everyone. But unfortunately that includes people
13:30
Speaker 3: that don't necessarily like me, or don't necessarily agree with me,
13:33
Speaker 3: for people that don't necessarily want me to be alive.
13:35
Speaker 3: And I think, as difficult as it is, that is
13:38
Speaker 3: the mark of a true hero is when you can
13:42
Speaker 3: save everybody, including the people that don't necessarily get along
13:46
Speaker 3: with you or the people that don't like you, and
13:50
Speaker 3: not necessarily say I have this power and I'm just
13:53
Speaker 3: going to use it for my family, or for my race,
13:56
Speaker 3: or for the people that are from my country. So
13:59
Speaker 3: I know we always see Yanish for everybody. And that
14:03
Speaker 3: is the journey that she goes on is learning, obviously
14:06
Speaker 3: in so many complicated ways, because obviously there's many twists
14:09
Speaker 3: and turns in the episode. Boy, if you look at
14:11
Speaker 3: it for me, if you if you zoom out and
14:14
Speaker 3: look at the ten thousand, you know, feed view our
14:17
Speaker 3: shoes really about empathy because we feel like, you know,
14:21
Speaker 3: we live in a world now where we could use
14:23
Speaker 3: a lot of that for each other.
14:25
Speaker 1: And yes, that's absolutely the case.
14:27
Speaker 2: I mean, I will say, even bringing it down to
14:30
Speaker 2: a character level, I really appreciate how Yanu has very
14:34
Speaker 2: big emotions.
14:35
Speaker 1: She very big, very big emotions.
14:37
Speaker 2: And as the resident, you know, older siblings or the oldest,
14:42
Speaker 2: the eldest daughter we have. I don't know if you
14:44
Speaker 2: held or heard about the eldest daughter syndrome, but I
14:47
Speaker 2: have won.
14:48
Speaker 4: My sister is the first born. I know exactly.
14:50
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, So you know that we are we
14:54
Speaker 2: end up being the protectors and.
14:56
Speaker 4: Taking care even when you don't have to protect anything.
14:59
Speaker 2: Anything, And unfortunately for us, sometimes we cannot have the
15:04
Speaker 2: runway to have the big.
15:05
Speaker 1: Emotions right or correct. We have it or we have to.
15:08
Speaker 2: We have to contain and control, yes, and I do
15:13
Speaker 2: see that parallel with the new and then yes, not
15:16
Speaker 2: just her trying to control it, but also having a.
15:18
Speaker 1: Space to being able to let it go.
15:20
Speaker 2: And I think that's an important lesson, you know, for people,
15:23
Speaker 2: for adults and also the kids that are watching that
15:26
Speaker 2: you said it already, don't trust your emotions, allow your
15:29
Speaker 2: emotions to be I mean you think you'll be a
15:30
Speaker 2: stronger person for it.
15:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you hit the nail on the head.
15:35
Speaker 3: A lot of what we wanted to do with this show,
15:38
Speaker 3: and this is a kids and family show. So you
15:40
Speaker 3: know a lot of a lot of things that we
15:43
Speaker 3: tried to do with the story was, Yes, we want
15:46
Speaker 3: to have fun, we want to have action, we want
15:49
Speaker 3: to have comedy. All these things are important. Were sitting
15:52
Speaker 3: in the entertainment business, but really wanted to show a
15:55
Speaker 3: broad range of emotions across a broad range of characters.
15:59
Speaker 3: We wanted to show girls crying, wanted to show men crying.
16:02
Speaker 3: We wanted to show boys crying, and wanted to show
16:06
Speaker 3: people walking through those emotions. You wanted to show how
16:08
Speaker 3: people work through trauma and how it's not something that goes,
16:13
Speaker 3: you know, overnight, it's something that healing requires sometimes a community, right,
16:18
Speaker 3: You don't isolate yourself when you're hurt. You don't isolate
16:20
Speaker 3: yourself when you know things have gone the opposite way
16:25
Speaker 3: of what you wanted to You know them to go.
16:28
Speaker 3: You surround yourself a community, and it's okay to be
16:32
Speaker 3: not okay, it actually is. And it's okay to express yourself,
16:36
Speaker 3: whether it's you know, in a healthy way, whether it's
16:38
Speaker 3: you're upset, whether it's see your hurt, or whether somebody
16:41
Speaker 3: has offended you speak up about it and have a dialogue,
16:45
Speaker 3: have a conversation and work through things as a community
16:49
Speaker 3: as a group. Again, like I feel like the world
16:52
Speaker 3: that we live in now, we are being taught to
16:55
Speaker 3: isolate ourselves with It's like, oh, this is just my click,
16:58
Speaker 3: and I understand why people do. I think that things
17:00
Speaker 3: are very crazy right now. So humans, your instinct is
17:04
Speaker 3: to just protect what's mine, right so I don't even
17:06
Speaker 3: necessarily look at it as you know, what's wrong with
17:10
Speaker 3: people that are acting this stry because sometimes that's my
17:13
Speaker 3: first instinct when things happen. It's like my God, my wife,
17:15
Speaker 3: my family, we need to figure things out. But I think,
17:18
Speaker 3: like I said, you know, there's there's an extra step
17:22
Speaker 3: that people can take sometimes to just look beyond their
17:25
Speaker 3: immediate surrounding in terms of when things are going crazy.
17:31
Speaker 3: Because again, you know, I think we as human beings,
17:35
Speaker 3: I believe we were created for community. We're not created
17:38
Speaker 3: to be isolated. But yeah, like you know, there's a
17:41
Speaker 3: lot I was trying to say, there was, there's a
17:43
Speaker 3: lot of very deep emotions written in a very simple story.
17:47
Speaker 3: This was not a very easy thing to do. The
17:49
Speaker 3: story is very simple, and to get powers to understand
17:52
Speaker 3: where they come from and interesting me to save you're
17:54
Speaker 3: balaland but layered beyond that, it's a whole lot of
17:57
Speaker 3: subtexts for things that are relatable today. And trust me,
18:01
Speaker 3: this wasn't I wrote the comic books in two thousand
18:03
Speaker 3: and eighteen eighteen. Yeah right, yeah, so it's really really
18:07
Speaker 3: crazy how now that the show has come out, there's
18:09
Speaker 3: so many things that you can relate in the show.
18:13
Speaker 4: Like obviously, yeah, people call me, I'm like, you know
18:16
Speaker 4: what you did?
18:17
Speaker 3: Man, it'd be so such a crazy thing, like what
18:19
Speaker 3: dealing with X, Y and Z today, the same way
18:22
Speaker 3: you know Yanu is being you know, dealing with classes
18:24
Speaker 3: in Man. This is like a lot of people are
18:26
Speaker 3: making a lot of parallels to real life, and you
18:29
Speaker 3: know it is great well for us, We're really just
18:33
Speaker 3: that people, especially the kids, can take the positive lessons
18:37
Speaker 3: and see how you know, I Yanu is overcoming certain
18:40
Speaker 3: things and apply that to their lives as well.
18:42
Speaker 5: Yeah.
18:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, And and yes there is the depth and the
18:45
Speaker 2: emotion and the more serious or dramatic tones of it.
18:49
Speaker 1: But this series is so entertaining. It's so funny. Yes,
18:53
Speaker 1: it's so funny.
18:55
Speaker 2: And when I was speaking, when I was you know,
18:58
Speaker 2: so many weeks ago now, but when I was speaking
18:59
Speaker 2: with the cast, like when I was speaking with Sarah.
19:02
Speaker 1: And Ya and Alua Femi, and that's all.
19:06
Speaker 2: Like when I was speaking with all of them about
19:08
Speaker 2: their characters, I said, these people, these characters, they sound
19:11
Speaker 2: like my Nigerian friends. Like they sound like thetis down
19:15
Speaker 2: the block, you know what I mean. Like the things
19:17
Speaker 2: that were coming out of their mouth, the comments that
19:19
Speaker 2: they were saying.
19:20
Speaker 1: I forgot.
19:21
Speaker 2: One character said something to you now and you like,
19:23
Speaker 2: you know, do you think the birds and the bees
19:26
Speaker 2: care to hear your voice?
19:27
Speaker 4: Something like that.
19:29
Speaker 1: It was just out of control.
19:30
Speaker 2: And I just it's just and I'm sharing that also
19:34
Speaker 2: for the people who are listening, who are trying to
19:35
Speaker 2: think about.
19:36
Speaker 1: Oh is this show for me?
19:38
Speaker 2: This show is funny, the show is entertaining, The show
19:41
Speaker 2: has so much action too. And you guys, you particularly,
19:45
Speaker 2: but also the team itself did a wonderful job.
19:48
Speaker 1: In trying to translate that.
19:49
Speaker 4: And in that.
19:51
Speaker 2: Translation obviously, and and you're even in your own life
19:54
Speaker 2: as common of a creator and things like that, you
19:56
Speaker 2: have your own influences. And one influence that I keep
19:59
Speaker 2: seeing come up when it comes to they mentioned Avatar,
20:02
Speaker 2: the Last Airbend and They're like, this is the African
20:05
Speaker 2: Avatar last embedder. How do you feel about those comments?
20:09
Speaker 2: You know some I know, on one hand, its like,
20:10
Speaker 2: oh that's a that's a great.
20:13
Speaker 1: You know thought. I don't want to be compared to others.
20:15
Speaker 1: But how do you feel about that?
20:18
Speaker 4: Heck, yeah, I feel good. Man.
20:19
Speaker 3: Look, I mean a lot of people are like, uh,
20:23
Speaker 3: you know, a couple of years ago, I'm not saying
20:26
Speaker 3: three or four, I used to get offended by everything.
20:29
Speaker 4: One wife, My wife sat and said.
20:31
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, you keep you keep doing this. You're
20:34
Speaker 3: just gonna run yourself into the ground. Like now that
20:37
Speaker 3: you have something that's out there, you better learn to
20:39
Speaker 3: just take things as they come. Never get too high,
20:42
Speaker 3: never get too low, just continue to do what you
20:45
Speaker 3: feel is right. They compared this to Avatar. I mean, honestly,
20:48
Speaker 3: for me, I love Avatar. Now I think it's I
20:52
Speaker 3: think it's a gross over simplification because you know you,
20:55
Speaker 3: I think they see the glowing eyes and immediately people
20:58
Speaker 3: are like, oh yeah, but again that ab was not
21:00
Speaker 3: the first to do glowing eyes, right. I mean, if
21:03
Speaker 3: you actually read the Bible, like you know, there's you know,
21:06
Speaker 3: the Bible describes some things with like flaming eyes, right,
21:09
Speaker 3: So if you want to go all the way back there,
21:11
Speaker 3: like that's that's where.
21:12
Speaker 4: It comes to you.
21:13
Speaker 1: Like actually time.
21:18
Speaker 3: But again I'll say this to me, like even the
21:21
Speaker 3: fact that people are making the comparison, I think that's
21:25
Speaker 3: a massive win. Honestly, you know, it's a I try
21:29
Speaker 3: to be a glassp for guys like you never and
21:32
Speaker 3: there's people that are like, oh, it's not original, it's
21:34
Speaker 3: not this.
21:34
Speaker 4: So those those those comments.
21:36
Speaker 3: Again, if you if you do something and people don't
21:41
Speaker 3: make negative comments, I've not done it.
21:43
Speaker 4: You've not done something right, right, because.
21:46
Speaker 3: They're gonna do If you're going to do anything that's
21:48
Speaker 3: worth that's that's worth doing, it's gonna come with opposition.
21:52
Speaker 3: It's gonna come with the negative comments and all that stuff.
21:56
Speaker 3: And to me, like I said, I try not to
21:57
Speaker 3: put too much attention to the like, oh, this is
22:01
Speaker 3: the best thing in the world. And not that I
22:02
Speaker 3: don't appreciate those, but I try to keep level. But
22:05
Speaker 3: again back to the like I said to me, the comparison,
22:08
Speaker 3: I actually don't mind it that it's very flattering because
22:11
Speaker 3: I think it's Avatar is one of, if not the
22:15
Speaker 3: best animated series that has ever been produced in the
22:19
Speaker 3: United States. It's fantastic. It's it literally has no flaws,
22:24
Speaker 3: Like if you think about it, I mean, I think
22:26
Speaker 3: there was three or three episodes from start to finish.
22:30
Speaker 4: There's not a lot of bad things you can say
22:31
Speaker 4: about the show.
22:32
Speaker 3: So first of all, it's it's it's fantastic the comparison.
22:36
Speaker 3: But what I would do encourage youble, is that give
22:38
Speaker 3: you a chance because from the I think after the
22:42
Speaker 3: first ten minutes of the first episode, you understand that
22:46
Speaker 3: this is not an African avatar. It is absolute that
22:49
Speaker 3: is the growth of a simplification. And like I said,
22:52
Speaker 3: I think we just need to give it a chance
22:55
Speaker 3: and watch it for what it is. But in terms
22:58
Speaker 3: of the comparison, it doesn't offend at all. It's actually
23:02
Speaker 3: something that encourages me because I feel like we're doing
23:04
Speaker 3: something right if people are putting those two things together.
23:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I think it's just you know,
23:10
Speaker 2: natural human nature to try to make patterns exactly.
23:13
Speaker 1: It's something that you've.
23:14
Speaker 2: Seen, so you find camaraderie, your understanding in it. So yeah,
23:20
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's a flowering. So I'm glad
23:23
Speaker 2: to hear that.
23:23
Speaker 1: You're okay with it, but I'm extremely, very upset.
23:27
Speaker 3: I'm not one of those creators. I'm not one of
23:30
Speaker 3: those creators. Look I feel like the luckiest guy in
23:34
Speaker 3: the world. I am literally worn in a million rights.
23:37
Speaker 3: I was born in Legos, Nigeria, and the path that
23:42
Speaker 3: I've been on to get to this point. Do you
23:44
Speaker 3: know the odds that was stacked against me, you know,
23:49
Speaker 3: to like I said, to be born in Nigeria, to
23:52
Speaker 3: be in a country where, you know, you don't necessarily
23:54
Speaker 3: see people being animators or writers and directors, at least
23:58
Speaker 3: when I was growing up, to coming here, moving overseas,
24:02
Speaker 3: you know, as somebody that you know came to a
24:06
Speaker 3: new country, you know ing ingratiating himself with a new culture,
24:11
Speaker 3: going to university here, getting into the entertainment industry, writing
24:15
Speaker 3: a bunch of comics, then get signed by dark Horse,
24:19
Speaker 3: then you know, goes around pitching Hollywood, then gets a
24:22
Speaker 3: development deal, then gets green lids. Like you don't understand,
24:27
Speaker 3: you know, It's it's like it's literally one in a million,
24:30
Speaker 3: is not. There's there's literally a million people in the
24:33
Speaker 3: world now who want to create their own show. In
24:36
Speaker 3: one way, ship or formed. This is non exaggeration. There's
24:39
Speaker 3: millions of people. I am one of the very few
24:41
Speaker 3: that I can say I have a show that's on
24:45
Speaker 3: one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world or
24:48
Speaker 3: Max obviously catching network on on Saturdays.
24:51
Speaker 4: So I feel like a very lucky person.
24:54
Speaker 2: Let me jump in because it's also just more thing
24:57
Speaker 2: curtoon network is iconic, like.
24:59
Speaker 4: Yes it is that.
25:02
Speaker 2: You grew up with that, still watching it and yeah
25:08
Speaker 2: do you That leads the iconic nature of the activity
25:11
Speaker 2: that you're doing.
25:12
Speaker 1: What you Firstly, did you go to university? Okay? Okay?
25:16
Speaker 1: So you want to George where you pushed me? Did you?
25:19
Speaker 1: And I went to Howard so I understand you know
25:23
Speaker 1: the DC college life.
25:25
Speaker 2: So be you know, hate you? You know, I went
25:29
Speaker 2: to many g W parties. But that's neither here nor there.
25:33
Speaker 2: What I wanted to say, was you what your family
25:37
Speaker 2: pushed you to be?
25:37
Speaker 4: Doctor?
25:38
Speaker 1: Lawyer, engineer? Did you get this thing?
25:41
Speaker 4: You know?
25:42
Speaker 3: This is the funniest thing I always tell people because
25:45
Speaker 3: I honestly, I think maybe ninety percent of Nigerian's like
25:48
Speaker 3: we share that story where it's like yes, your parents,
25:52
Speaker 3: where do you call me?
25:54
Speaker 4: Yes? Engineer, architect, a lawyer, you know. Funny thing.
26:00
Speaker 3: Yes, my parents wanted me to get an education, So yes,
26:03
Speaker 3: I did get some form of that lecture, like you know,
26:07
Speaker 3: because there's not a lot of money sending me here
26:09
Speaker 3: and sending George Worthy you know, ow more tituition and jobs.
26:13
Speaker 3: I mean, I had a scholarship, right, so we too here.
26:16
Speaker 3: I think maybe like sixty seventy percent.
26:18
Speaker 4: I was very lucky. It's very expensive.
26:21
Speaker 3: But but the moment I was done with college, my
26:28
Speaker 3: parents were like, Okay, got this degree. And I'm paraphrasing,
26:32
Speaker 3: you know, you have a job. Now, now figure out
26:35
Speaker 3: your way to pivot towards the dream that you always
26:40
Speaker 3: wanted to Like, I think for them and I understanding
26:42
Speaker 3: now as a parent, right, no parents want their child
26:45
Speaker 3: to be in a field where it's going to be
26:48
Speaker 3: hard for you to get a job. They have to
26:49
Speaker 3: worry about you. What's it going to eat? Is it
26:51
Speaker 3: going to be able to afford X, Y and Z.
26:53
Speaker 3: So I think they wanted me to have a backup
26:55
Speaker 3: plan in the event that, you know, because honestly a
26:58
Speaker 3: lot of people get into this in the met life,
27:01
Speaker 3: and unfortunately a lot of us make it. You know,
27:04
Speaker 3: in whatever capacy. And that's another thing that I always
27:06
Speaker 3: try to tell people. You have to define what success is.
27:09
Speaker 3: Success sometimes isn't having a show on TV. For me, right,
27:13
Speaker 3: Like I had to make up my mind, like my goal, yes,
27:17
Speaker 3: is to get a show done. But then I had
27:19
Speaker 3: to really define success at some points for me, was
27:24
Speaker 3: not doing this at the expense of my family where
27:26
Speaker 3: I'm a bad husband and my bad father. Because to me,
27:29
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, success is coming home
27:31
Speaker 3: to a loving family and knowing that you're doing right
27:34
Speaker 3: by them, you know. So I had to have that conversation.
27:37
Speaker 3: But back to that, Yes, my my parents. You know,
27:41
Speaker 3: I spoke about my dad, you know, but my mom,
27:43
Speaker 3: even while I was in college, he was always very encouraging.
27:49
Speaker 4: You know.
27:49
Speaker 3: My mom has made drastic levels of sacrifice on my
27:54
Speaker 3: behal you know too, There's not a lot of things
27:57
Speaker 3: that you can compare to your mother's love in life.
28:01
Speaker 3: But I felt a lot of that throughout my career
28:04
Speaker 3: and I won't be here without my parents at this
28:08
Speaker 3: point today. But yes, too, answer that question. There was
28:11
Speaker 3: the conversation of you're gonna get this degree, You're going.
28:17
Speaker 1: To figure it out, You're going to have this as
28:19
Speaker 1: a backup.
28:20
Speaker 2: Right exactly, Okay, I just you know, I asked because
28:25
Speaker 2: you know to your point that you alluded to it. Actually,
28:28
Speaker 2: just a lot of people want to go into this space,
28:30
Speaker 2: want to go into entertainment. They want to follow these
28:33
Speaker 2: dreams that are sometimes one in a million. But it's
28:36
Speaker 2: just like sometimes they feel like it's one or the other,
28:38
Speaker 2: right where it's like, well, no, especially if you're positioned well,
28:41
Speaker 2: you could have both and and maybe you should position
28:43
Speaker 2: yourself to have a backup just in case. Right, And again,
28:48
Speaker 2: college is not for everyone. Everyone does things differently, but
28:50
Speaker 2: it's just the idea that there's more than one way.
28:54
Speaker 3: Like, there's no there's no I had to learn this
28:57
Speaker 3: the hard way. There's no shame in having a ninety
28:59
Speaker 3: five and doing your other stuff on the side. There's
29:03
Speaker 3: no shame. Like I was very ashamed of that at first,
29:07
Speaker 3: you know, because yeah, it was I was trying to.
29:11
Speaker 3: I think you just have this mentality that sometimes you know,
29:14
Speaker 3: if you're not some of us as piritors. I want
29:17
Speaker 3: to say, everybody, if you're not making money from your craft,
29:20
Speaker 3: your failure, you know, the starving artists things. You know,
29:23
Speaker 3: So sometimes It's like I felt like I had to
29:25
Speaker 3: put on a persona where I was successful financially. But
29:30
Speaker 3: after a while I had to disabuse myself of that
29:33
Speaker 3: notion because I was struggling for a while and I
29:36
Speaker 3: didn't want to get a ninety five. Was like, no,
29:37
Speaker 3: I'm going to have to figure this out. But at
29:39
Speaker 3: some point I had to sit myself down and ask
29:41
Speaker 3: myself and again, this is how is what I was
29:43
Speaker 3: talking about earlier, about the internal monologue. You have to
29:45
Speaker 3: have you with yourself. Like a lot of what we
29:49
Speaker 3: react to outwardly, it comes from insight. It's such inside first, right,
29:54
Speaker 3: And for me, I had a lot of insecurities. I
29:57
Speaker 3: wanted to feel like the people that you see on
30:00
Speaker 3: TV having successful careers and being able to say yes,
30:03
Speaker 3: I made it. And like I said, I had to.
30:06
Speaker 3: I had to take a couple of step backs and
30:08
Speaker 3: realize that there's no shame in providing for your family.
30:12
Speaker 3: There's absolutely why would you be as a matter of fact,
30:14
Speaker 3: like you should be. You should be very emboldened by that,
30:19
Speaker 3: like that is your number one priority. So yes, I
30:23
Speaker 3: stopped trying to whostle, so I got a nine to five,
30:25
Speaker 3: and then I think for like five years between twenty
30:28
Speaker 3: ten and twenty fifteen, I was doing both at the
30:32
Speaker 3: same time until twenty fifteen, when I had an investor
30:35
Speaker 3: invested my company. Then I was able to quit my
30:37
Speaker 3: job the right way and transition into this. But again,
30:39
Speaker 3: I won't just encourage anybody out there. There's no shame
30:43
Speaker 3: in taking your time, and everybody runs a different race.
30:47
Speaker 3: One of the biggest mistakes you can make his way
30:50
Speaker 3: you're running a race is looking left and right to
30:51
Speaker 3: see the positions that other people are in. You keep
30:54
Speaker 3: your eye on the goal and keep triving forward.
30:57
Speaker 2: That's excellent advice, I mean, particularly because you've already explained
31:03
Speaker 2: and illustrated how much of a journey it was to
31:05
Speaker 2: even get EANU to this place, to get yourself to
31:07
Speaker 2: this place. Yeah, you know, and it makes me think
31:11
Speaker 2: about you talked about the rarity of even making it
31:16
Speaker 2: this far right, and when we talk about projects like
31:20
Speaker 2: those projects that feature black characters or even and then
31:23
Speaker 2: and then the next stage African characters, and very specifically
31:27
Speaker 2: yourvo culture characters, like we have some rarities that are
31:31
Speaker 2: actually floating around, like we have you Au dew On
31:34
Speaker 2: Disney plus right. I love it super team for on Netflix,
31:39
Speaker 2: that's one of my favorites, love it right, and then
31:41
Speaker 2: of course Eanu on cartoon Network Max Right. One thing
31:47
Speaker 2: that I want to mention about it like, I guess
31:49
Speaker 2: the thread between all of them, all of them are
31:51
Speaker 2: they are led by young African girls that have their
31:54
Speaker 2: own level of agency. They're not being and there's nothing
31:58
Speaker 2: wrong with princesses who actually want want to see more
32:01
Speaker 2: African Pan African, Black American princess enough. But I do like,
32:07
Speaker 2: even whether it's action based or tech or whatever it is,
32:11
Speaker 2: you have these young black girls and then then he's
32:14
Speaker 2: asking girls who can do it themselves, have the strength
32:18
Speaker 2: and that and that concept of as mentioned agency. You know,
32:23
Speaker 2: how do you feel about seeing similar minded projects floating
32:28
Speaker 2: in this space right now?
32:30
Speaker 4: I think it's fantastic.
32:31
Speaker 3: I think one of the things that you know, there's
32:34
Speaker 3: a bunch of things that inspired me to create, and
32:37
Speaker 3: I mentioned a lot of the times that one of
32:39
Speaker 3: the biggest ones was like it being a love letter
32:42
Speaker 3: to my daughter.
32:43
Speaker 4: But another thing.
32:46
Speaker 3: Is that for me, I've been surrounded by strong woming
32:48
Speaker 3: in my entire life.
32:49
Speaker 4: You know, I mentioned my mom. Yes, I have two.
32:52
Speaker 3: Older sisters, and when I moved over here to the
32:54
Speaker 3: United States. Well, my my sister, who the second bone,
33:01
Speaker 3: he was basically like a second mother to me when
33:03
Speaker 3: I came in because my mom was back on in Nigeria,
33:05
Speaker 3: so I lived with her for you know, maybe six
33:10
Speaker 3: seven eight years. So I feel like she raised me
33:13
Speaker 3: for a very you know, important part of my development
33:17
Speaker 3: because I came here at sixteen. And if you know
33:20
Speaker 3: anything about you know, just a human brain, like that's
33:22
Speaker 3: where you start to form ideas. Ideology starts to come
33:26
Speaker 3: into play about how you see the world, the things
33:28
Speaker 3: that frustrate you, things that you you you know, it's
33:32
Speaker 3: really make a break for even young men at that age,
33:35
Speaker 3: like you know, it's it's it's at that point where
33:37
Speaker 3: you start to make choices, whether good or bad, and
33:40
Speaker 3: and you're moving into one of those directions. So, yeah,
33:43
Speaker 3: my sister was very influential, you know, to me. But yeah,
33:47
Speaker 3: I've been and now you know, my wife ad married
33:49
Speaker 3: to a very very very beautiful, strong African Black woman
33:55
Speaker 3: and now every daughter as well, you know, So again
33:58
Speaker 3: these concepts are unfamiliar to me about seeing you know,
34:03
Speaker 3: black women be excellent, black women being brave, black women
34:07
Speaker 3: being nuturing you know, black women define the odds. I've
34:11
Speaker 3: literally seen it my entire life, you know, with people
34:14
Speaker 3: that have been surrounded with But to answer your question,
34:17
Speaker 3: it's it's fantastic to see you know, moon Girl and
34:22
Speaker 3: Devil Din.
34:23
Speaker 4: Unfortunately that was canceled her.
34:24
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's another an excellent example of just you know,
34:29
Speaker 3: really really seeing a young black girl in her own
34:33
Speaker 3: in a way that even the yeah, she's you know,
34:35
Speaker 3: super small, it's also believable, right you believe that that
34:38
Speaker 3: could be somebody that's you know, down the block, you know,
34:41
Speaker 3: right now. So yeah, I think it's fantastic. I would
34:43
Speaker 3: love to see you know, more of it, you know,
34:47
Speaker 3: because I always try to say black people are not
34:49
Speaker 3: in one of it, right, whether you're talking about Africans
34:51
Speaker 3: or African Americans. There's so much diversity about us. There's
34:57
Speaker 3: so many different facets, so many beautiful things about ourselves.
35:00
Speaker 3: Like the more we put out there, it shouldn't be Honestly,
35:04
Speaker 3: I love that was celebrating it. Well, the fact that
35:07
Speaker 3: we're even celebrating it, to me, the problem it should
35:09
Speaker 3: be in.
35:09
Speaker 4: Normally, see what you're saying.
35:11
Speaker 3: So yeah, so hopefully this is something that when the
35:14
Speaker 3: next one comes up, it's like, yeah, we have another one.
35:17
Speaker 3: It's like, oh yeah, this is yeah, this is this
35:19
Speaker 3: is right, Like I would like to check this out.
35:21
Speaker 2: And I know you have but so much power in
35:26
Speaker 2: this space, right like, and a lot of this is
35:29
Speaker 2: up to the I mean, we have our own ways,
35:32
Speaker 2: right Like we have Line Forward Studios, you know, unique students,
35:35
Speaker 2: we have other places where we do it ourselves. But
35:40
Speaker 2: could you maybe speak a little bit on one of
35:42
Speaker 2: the gaps you see as needing to be filled, Like
35:44
Speaker 2: how do we get more how do we get to
35:46
Speaker 2: the place as much as we can do there's a
35:49
Speaker 2: lot that others that are.
35:50
Speaker 1: Not us have to do.
35:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, but what.
35:54
Speaker 2: Can we continue to do to try to get our
35:56
Speaker 2: voices out there more?
35:57
Speaker 1: Like what what did you.
35:59
Speaker 2: Do to try to get more visibility for Yan and
36:02
Speaker 2: things like that?
36:04
Speaker 4: Well, I mean we can continue to pray because.
36:06
Speaker 6: It's harder, but I think you know, so here's the thing, right,
36:12
Speaker 6: you know, and I always go back to this, like,
36:17
Speaker 6: you know, there's a positive message behind they know.
36:20
Speaker 3: You know, we're very encouraged about the authenticity everything that
36:23
Speaker 3: goes into it. We love all the reaction, but at
36:26
Speaker 3: the end of the day, this is a business. This
36:27
Speaker 3: is your business, right, This isn't a charity. People are
36:31
Speaker 3: not doing this because it's a non profit. They're doing
36:34
Speaker 3: it to make money, and they're doing it to you know,
36:37
Speaker 3: increase subscribers, increase watch hours, all of that. Like, we
36:42
Speaker 3: cannot ignore that, right, we can't ignore that fact because
36:46
Speaker 3: I think sometimes you will get offended. Oh no, you're
36:48
Speaker 3: commercializing this. You know, what does everything have to be
36:50
Speaker 3: about money? Unfortunately that's what it costs money to produce
36:55
Speaker 3: this thing. So we have to we have to make money, right,
36:59
Speaker 3: We have to you know, be successful in notther for
37:02
Speaker 3: this to become normal. And one of the ways we
37:04
Speaker 3: do that is by watching these type of shows when
37:07
Speaker 3: they come out. You if you watch it and these
37:11
Speaker 3: shows that hits, like people follow the money at the
37:14
Speaker 3: end of the day. Look, I know that there's a
37:16
Speaker 3: lot of discrimination. I know there is a lot of politics.
37:20
Speaker 3: I know there's a lot of you know, gatekeeping, don't.
37:24
Speaker 3: I don't want to be sonhit as to say that
37:27
Speaker 3: those things don't exist. What I do know, more often
37:31
Speaker 3: than not, when something is very successful, people want to
37:34
Speaker 3: do more of it. People want to do more of it.
37:37
Speaker 3: So if people, you know, go online and they see that,
37:42
Speaker 3: Oh my god, then is this new show that's just
37:45
Speaker 3: breaking all the records and ratings. It's you know, top
37:47
Speaker 3: ten here, it's this you know, it has all one
37:51
Speaker 3: hundred thousand followers, like this video was posted as. When
37:55
Speaker 3: people see all of that, they want to do more.
37:58
Speaker 3: And when you do more, power people like lion Forge Entertainment,
38:01
Speaker 3: which is a black horned studio to be able to
38:05
Speaker 3: have more partnerships with like lacks of Cartoon Network and
38:07
Speaker 3: WBD and Netflix. Because now line Ford does a very
38:11
Speaker 3: successful show, more studios want to work with Lioneforge. And
38:16
Speaker 3: because lion Ford's mission is to you know, it's diverse stories,
38:20
Speaker 3: authentically told, they're going to do most of like right.
38:23
Speaker 4: So even though.
38:26
Speaker 3: Like you said, like you know, it's hard to get
38:28
Speaker 3: these type of shows off the ground, I guarantee you
38:31
Speaker 3: the more successful shows like you know, Mongol and Devil Dinosaur,
38:35
Speaker 3: Wadu Iyanu, all these different things that we claim or
38:39
Speaker 3: we see that we want to see more if we
38:41
Speaker 3: watch them religiously, I guarantee you you will see more
38:45
Speaker 3: of them popping up. You'll see other projects being picked
38:48
Speaker 3: up moving forward.
38:50
Speaker 4: You know, there's.
38:51
Speaker 3: Power in the black dollar, there's power and just any
38:55
Speaker 3: kind of dollar, honestly, because it's not just black people
38:57
Speaker 3: that watch Lean like ianis for everybody. Like I said, Bob,
39:01
Speaker 3: if you want to see more shoes like this, you watch,
39:04
Speaker 3: you share, you talk to people about it, you tell
39:06
Speaker 3: people to watch it, and you continue to spread the
39:10
Speaker 3: world because that's the only way you know they're going
39:12
Speaker 3: to you're going to see more.
39:13
Speaker 4: Stuff like this.
39:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's why you're here, because we want people
39:17
Speaker 2: to hear it straight from the source about why they
39:19
Speaker 2: should be watching and why it's so important and and
39:23
Speaker 2: and you've you've provided so many gems too for people
39:25
Speaker 2: who are creators such as myself, and how to how
39:28
Speaker 2: to also overcome fears, how to overcome barriers, you know.
39:33
Speaker 1: And Yeah, being.
39:35
Speaker 2: That, like I said, has been done a fantastic job.
39:38
Speaker 2: It really does and has some very good reception. People
39:43
Speaker 2: are loving it. And I know thee some special stuff
39:45
Speaker 2: happening with it. And I think you had something to
39:48
Speaker 2: tell us too about it.
39:49
Speaker 4: Yes, I have a very you know, special announcement.
39:52
Speaker 3: I don't know what this is going to air, so
39:53
Speaker 3: maybe you've heard you know about this before, but we're
39:56
Speaker 3: getting the season two we're.
39:58
Speaker 4: Getting this season two. I know only that.
40:01
Speaker 3: Not only that, we're also going to get there's a
40:04
Speaker 3: movie that's coming out as well. That's gonna Yeah, it's
40:07
Speaker 3: gonna end on Cuting Network and Mexican that happens after
40:10
Speaker 3: season one.
40:12
Speaker 4: So yes, like I said, the more.
40:14
Speaker 3: You support stuff like this, this is the kind of response,
40:18
Speaker 3: this is what happens. So I wasn't just you know,
40:20
Speaker 3: talking trash. I'm speaking of experience, like it's it's because
40:26
Speaker 3: of the love, congratulation, Thank you, thank you, thank you,
40:30
Speaker 3: thank goodness.
40:32
Speaker 1: Did you I know you've been known about this and
40:34
Speaker 1: you've been.
40:35
Speaker 3: Holding Yeah, Like literally I want to say, can I
40:40
Speaker 3: can I say from the top building?
40:43
Speaker 4: Yeah? So yeah, Yeah, it's been. It's been. Yeah, it's been.
40:47
Speaker 3: It's it looks first of all, like I said, humble,
40:50
Speaker 3: and I'm very excited, feel very good about it. But
40:54
Speaker 3: now for me, it's about momentum. It's like, how do
40:56
Speaker 3: we get the season three because we're already working on
40:58
Speaker 3: season two, you know, you know at the moment. So yeah,
41:02
Speaker 3: it's it's very exciting. Like I said, we're also getting
41:05
Speaker 3: a movie. Was we're getting a movie after the first season.
41:09
Speaker 3: The movie is gonna come up between season one and
41:11
Speaker 3: season two.
41:13
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, it's going to be. It's gonna be an
41:15
Speaker 4: amazing time in the world of you.
41:18
Speaker 1: You see how big my eyes are right now.
41:19
Speaker 2: But I'm so excited to wait whole cast is coming back.
41:25
Speaker 4: I can't now you're gonna get me in trouble. I'm
41:27
Speaker 4: just gonna shut up.
41:28
Speaker 2: I gotta I gotta have we're getting are we getting
41:31
Speaker 2: music from Burna Boy?
41:34
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna shut up.
41:35
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna shut up. I don't want to get
41:37
Speaker 3: in trouble. I'm said enough, I'm said it.
41:42
Speaker 1: This is my job's your job?
41:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh my goodnesses, this is so exciting. I'm so
41:46
Speaker 2: happy ship that. Okay, okay, you know, before you go,
41:52
Speaker 2: we and I don't know if we've done this with
41:54
Speaker 2: you recently, maybe maybe.
41:55
Speaker 1: Not, but we we have a special segment called.
41:58
Speaker 2: Bratt where we just asked really quick question. This is
42:00
Speaker 2: the question you have to answer quickly. You don't want
42:03
Speaker 2: we don't want you diving too much, but I might
42:05
Speaker 2: ask you, and I'm only going to give you like three,
42:07
Speaker 2: four of them.
42:09
Speaker 1: Whatever. The first thing that comes in your head, just
42:11
Speaker 1: tell me, and then I might ask why Okay.
42:13
Speaker 4: So okay, cool, here we go.
42:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you had no choice but to run for
42:21
Speaker 2: office with a comic.
42:22
Speaker 1: Book villain, like goodness, who would you choose? And why?
42:27
Speaker 4: Lex Luthor?
42:29
Speaker 1: That's my favorite dell Is?
42:30
Speaker 3: But why because he's the guy is a winner. I mean,
42:33
Speaker 3: see what you see, see what you got to see
42:35
Speaker 3: about him. He's also being the president as well too,
42:38
Speaker 3: So I want somebody who has the experiencing getting me there.
42:42
Speaker 3: So yes, I didn't even hesitate for that one.
42:44
Speaker 1: That's great. Tell people all the time. I'm like lex
42:48
Speaker 1: Is just misunderstood.
42:51
Speaker 3: A little bit of a little bit of a social path,
42:53
Speaker 3: but misunderstood me.
42:57
Speaker 1: Questionable choices, but it is what it is.
42:59
Speaker 2: Okay, has another If you can have a theme song
43:03
Speaker 2: play when you walked into a room, mm.
43:06
Speaker 4: Hmm, be the honest theme song, the one that shows up.
43:10
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I've just listened to it too much and
43:11
Speaker 3: I have no reason except that it's just something that
43:14
Speaker 3: has been ranging into my head.
43:16
Speaker 4: My daughter listens to it all the time, so that's yeah,
43:19
Speaker 4: that would definitely be.
43:20
Speaker 3: And also, look, I'm a marketing guy, so any chance
43:23
Speaker 3: I get to push my stuff, I'm going.
43:25
Speaker 1: To, oh, look at that look at that.
43:29
Speaker 2: Would you rather see your life turn into a music album,
43:33
Speaker 2: a graphic novel, a video game or a movie?
43:36
Speaker 4: Video game? Oh? Why?
43:39
Speaker 3: Because you can replay those, right, and you know you
43:43
Speaker 3: can change things. Like I don't know if you're a
43:44
Speaker 3: video game fan, but it's like most big games, you
43:47
Speaker 3: can play it again. I'm like, man, I'm not going
43:48
Speaker 3: to do that. I'm not gonna make the same mistake again.
43:51
Speaker 3: So yeah, there's certain things in my life that I
43:54
Speaker 3: would love to you know what, Can I reload it,
43:56
Speaker 3: save and do that again?
43:58
Speaker 4: So yes, definitely cool.
44:03
Speaker 1: Okay, just a couple more in any media and then
44:07
Speaker 1: you like this. See I knew you love this. I
44:09
Speaker 1: love it and any medium like folks, TV, film, whatever.
44:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, which characters passing struck you the worst?
44:20
Speaker 4: Wow? Transformers nineteen eighty six.
44:24
Speaker 1: I wish then was here. Ben would scream and run
44:27
Speaker 1: around the room.
44:28
Speaker 3: Now that is one of his sermon's prime completely destroyed me.
44:32
Speaker 3: I mean I wasn't I was. I was one years
44:34
Speaker 3: ago when it came about watch is that when I
44:35
Speaker 3: was five? Oh my god? That if that ruined me?
44:39
Speaker 3: That was Ben's that ruined that ruined me as a kid.
44:44
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, okay, his last one.
44:48
Speaker 1: If you can have any superpower, what would it be?
44:51
Speaker 3: Uh time metabolism. I hate working out, I hate it,
44:56
Speaker 3: I do it. I ain't working out. I love food
44:59
Speaker 3: too much. I just love food so much. Yeah, so
45:05
Speaker 3: so do you.
45:06
Speaker 1: Want to be like?
45:07
Speaker 7: But see, I'm just want to want whatever. And that's
45:10
Speaker 7: the superpar It's like, my buddy is so charged. Anything
45:13
Speaker 7: I eat to just everything just thinks to nothing and
45:16
Speaker 7: then I can eat the next thing again.
45:18
Speaker 1: And that's a unique one. You'll be the flat a lot.
45:26
Speaker 1: But I don't want to do this.
45:28
Speaker 2: I don't want to do that.
45:29
Speaker 3: I don't want to I just want to eat and
45:31
Speaker 3: be okay and then eat again.
45:35
Speaker 1: Roy, You're hilarious.
45:37
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for coming on to talk to
45:39
Speaker 2: for all nerves. Thank you for sharing your life. Thank
45:41
Speaker 2: you for for for you know your honesty and also
45:45
Speaker 2: your boldness and bravery also to share. You know the
45:49
Speaker 2: truth and you know the things that that make that
45:52
Speaker 2: matter and the things that make you. Before you go,
45:54
Speaker 2: can you just please tell people again where they can
45:56
Speaker 2: find and watch where they can find it, find your project,
46:01
Speaker 2: anything else you want to plug, Please let them know, yes.
46:04
Speaker 3: You can watch Youana every Saturday nine thirty a m E,
46:07
Speaker 3: SD and PSD on Cartoon Network. Next day it's on Max,
46:12
Speaker 3: I believe. As of right now we have the first
46:14
Speaker 3: seven episodes, so you can binge the first seven episode
46:18
Speaker 3: on Max.
46:18
Speaker 4: So please please please.
46:19
Speaker 3: Check it out for my you know, all beautiful fans
46:24
Speaker 3: in all the parts of Africa. It comes out June
46:27
Speaker 3: thirteenth on show Max in forty four African countries and
46:31
Speaker 3: you'll be able to binge it all at once. So
46:33
Speaker 3: I've forgotten about you. In the UK, it comes out
46:36
Speaker 3: this summer on itv X and you also be able
46:38
Speaker 3: to binge watch it as well. For myself personally, you
46:41
Speaker 3: can find me at Unich Studios, y ou and WEK
46:45
Speaker 3: Studios on all the platform Instagram, you know, x, TikTok
46:50
Speaker 3: all the platforms like at Unich Studios, So please yes
46:54
Speaker 3: check us out on social media, give us a like
46:57
Speaker 3: and yeah, looking forward to chatting with you.
47:00
Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you so much, guys.
47:02
Speaker 2: This has been another incredible for All Nerds interview and
47:05
Speaker 2: we will be.
47:06
Speaker 1: Back with North.
47:11
Speaker 5: Hey y'all, thank you for watching this for all Nerds video.
47:14
Speaker 5: Whatever video it was that you just watched, make sure
47:17
Speaker 5: you hit these buttons below. Press all those buttons that
47:21
Speaker 5: like that subscribe whatever you see right below. These fingertips
47:25
Speaker 5: right here, just hit them, hit them, hit them. For
48:25
Speaker 5: All Nerds Shows a member of the Loudspeaker's Network, where
48:27
Speaker 5: we will always say rest in peace to our founder,
48:30
Speaker 5: combat Jack.
48:31
Speaker 1: For All Nerds Show is powered by our listeners.
48:33
Speaker 2: Everything we do, from our podcasts, live events, our website
48:37
Speaker 2: are all independently funded. Please continue to support us through
48:41
Speaker 2: our Patreon page at patreon dot com.
48:43
Speaker 1: Slash for All Nerds