{"id":25402,"date":"2023-06-27T10:01:26","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T14:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-iyanu\/"},"modified":"2023-06-27T10:02:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T14:02:03","slug":"lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-for-iyanu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-for-iyanu\/","title":{"rendered":"Lion Forge Recruits Diverse Preproduction Talent for Iyanu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lion Forge Entertainment (<em>Hair Love<\/em>) has teamed with Black Women Animate Studios to recruit a diverse pool of talent for preproduction roles on the Nigerian fantasy series <em>Iyanu<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The partnership aims to expand access and opportunities for Black and POC animators to train the next generation of creators and producers, using <em>Iyanu<\/em>\u00a0as an opportunity to do so. Based on the <em>Iyanu: Child of Wonder<\/em> graphic novels by Roye Okupe, the series centers on a teenage orphan who studies Yoruba history and ancient arts and triggers her own divine powers.<\/p>\n<p>With her newly discovered superpowers, Iyanu joins forces with two other teens to embark on a journey to discover the truth about the evil lurking in their homeland.<\/p>\n<p>Brandon Easton (<em>Transformers: War for Cybertron: Siege<\/em>, Marvel\u2019s Agent Carter) is spearheading the writers&#8217; room, with Okupe serving as the executive producer, writer and director on multiple episodes. Lion Forge Entertainment\u2019s Saxton Moore (<em>Rise Up, Sing Out<\/em>) will serve as supervising director, and executive producers include Lion Forge Entertainment\u2019s David Steward II and Matt Heath, Impact X Capital\u2019s Erica Dupuis and Forefront Media Group\u2019s Ryan Haidarian and Doug Schwalbe. The series will eventually debut on Cartoon Network and Max.<\/p>\n<p>Black Women Animate Studios has a background in original IP development, with experience spanning across all platforms. It drives equity in the animation industry by intentionally hiring Black women, women of color and nonbinary people of color.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLion Forge stands for diverse stories, authentically told,\u201d said David Steward II, founder and CEO of Lion Forge Entertainment. \u201cBlack Women Animate is one of the organizations leading the effort to open up this industry to new voices and new creators and we are thrilled to join forces with them to provide under-represented talent with the platform they deserve. Together, we will redefine the boundaries of storytelling and inspire a new generation of diverse voices in animation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taylor K. Shaw, founder and CEO of Black Women Animate, said, \u201cWe are thrilled to embark on this talent pipeline partnership with Lion Forge Animation. We are coming together to hire and train diverse talent for their upcoming series and will continue our efforts through an ongoing equity strategy that will be announced later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lion Forge Entertainment (Hair Love) has teamed with Black Women Animate Studios to recruit a diverse pool of talent for preproduction roles on the Nigerian fantasy series Iyanu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":25403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[7948,5600,7949,7499,7950],"class_list":["post-25402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-black-women-animate-studios","tag-david-steward-ii","tag-iyanu","tag-lion-forge-entertainment","tag-taylor-k-shaw","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lion Forge Recruits Diverse Preproduction Talent for Iyanu - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-for-iyanu\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lion Forge Recruits Diverse Preproduction Talent for Iyanu - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lion Forge Entertainment (Hair Love) has teamed with Black Women Animate Studios to recruit a diverse pool of talent for preproduction roles on the Nigerian fantasy series Iyanu.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-for-iyanu\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-27T14:01:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-27T14:02:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2017\/07\/LionForgeAnimation-Iyanu-0623.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-for-iyanu\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-for-iyanu\/\",\"name\":\"Lion Forge Recruits Diverse Preproduction Talent for Iyanu - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-27T14:01:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-27T14:02:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-for-iyanu\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-for-iyanu\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/lion-forge-recruits-diverse-preproduction-talent-for-iyanu\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lion Forge Recruits Diverse Preproduction Talent for Iyanu\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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