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My guest today is the exceptionally talented Artist, Animator, Director, Professor, and Writer Nancy Beiman.
Nancy Beiman hails from New Jersey, likes to travel and owns a cat named Gizmo! She wasn’t the first woman to work at the Disney Studio. There were many women before her who worked on Disney films. But Nancy has earned the distinction of being the second woman to be credited on a Disney film. She has taught animation at Savannah College of Art and Design, and taught at Rochester Institute of Technology, School of Film & Animation until 2008. She now teaches at Sheridan Institute’s Animation department in Canada.
Nancy was offered a scholarship to be part of the inaugural class of the Character Animation program at CalArts straight out high school. Her classmates included John Lasseter, Jerry Rees, John Musker, Tim Burton, and Brad Bird. Nancy was the first woman to graduate from the CalArts Character Animation Program. After CalArts, She went to work at Jack Zander’s Animation Parlour in New York. She has animated Bugs and Donald, Snoopy and Goofy, friends of Fievel Mouse and Mickey Mouse, and Don Martin cartoons! She worked with Chuck Jones, Bill Melendez, Gerhard Hahn, Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney Feature Animation, the Disney Channel, Disney television movies, and Warner Bros.
Nancy Beiman entered an industry that was pretty much a boy’s club. Her raw talent and hard work, combined with an appreciation of tradition, tenacity and courage in the face of adversity served her well.
