Deanna Kent spent her childhood making up treasure maps for her family (there are several hundred pennies still buried across the prairies of Western Canada). Realizing that treasure mapping mixed well with story-crafting, she made that her path. After teaching English for a decade, she moved on to work as a writer for the Walt Disney Company. For almost ten years, she worked at the Kelowna, Canada studio, first as a narrative designer for a growing interactive kids’ world. At Club Penguin, which grew into the number one MMO for kids, from 2008-2012, for a captivated audience of seven-twelve year olds, she helped to build and execute the big-picture story and sub-brands where their audience grew to over 200 million registered penguins in 190 countries. After five years, she switched roles and worked her way up to Sr. Writer for Brand and Marketing for the larger Disney Interactive division, where she was privileged to work with high performing teams and world-class franchises like Lucas, Pixar, Muppets, and more. More than anything, Deanna loves cross-discipline collaboration, and creating engaging, immersive experiences. When she grows up, she wants to be Edna Mode.
Neil Hooson was drawing on the back of his dad’s work papers since he could hold a pencil. After graduating, he took a detour through college where he earned a mathematics degree, but quickly found his way back to art through animation. He has worked as an illustrator, character designer, motion designer, and animator, for brands like Saatchi & Saatchi, Family Channel, Teletoon and more, but decided his passion was for creating story-rich content for kids and kids at heart. For almost a decade at the Walt Disney Company, Neil worked to bring story to life with Club Penguin, the number one MMO for kids. From 2008-2014, for a growing audience of seven-twelve year olds, Neil collaborated to build and execute the big-picture story and sub-brands where their audience grew to over over 200 million registered penguins in 190 countries. As part of the story and vis dev team, his work on one of their most popular sub-brands, Card-Jitsu, grew it into a multi-layered experience that boasted rich story, online games, and real-world ties. In 2014, Neil moved into an Art Director role for Brand and Marketing for the Walt Disney Company Interactive division, where he worked with franchises such as Pixar, Star Wars, and more. He loves story, and to experiment with various art styles and techniques to bring ideas and characters to life. Currently he’s Art Director for Yeti Farm Creative, an animation studio in Kelowna.
Deanna Kent and Neil Hooson worked together at the Walt Disney Company for almost a decade, first on Club Penguin—a virtual world for kids, and then in brand and marketing with a variety of franchises like Lucas, Pixar, Tron, and more. They're passionate about experience design (digital and physical) and have recently worked with a talented team to create story and art for the new Vancouver Teck Acute Care Centre for kids. These days, Neil works as an Art Director at Yeti Farm and Deanna works as a Writer and Marketing Manager at Carebook. At night, they work on their own wild, creative ideas. Now that the Snazzy Cat Capers books 1-3 are handed over to their publisher, they’re dreaming up a few new projects. Please find them on Twitter @Deannaandneil or on the Snazzy Cat website.
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