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 received a Bachelor in Fine Arts and graduated from School of Visual Arts in August 2014. [8] [9] She worked as a freelance animator for two years. [8] She continued to work on her webcomic ZooPhobia until 2016 when she ended it to focus her attention on Hazbin Hotel. Hazbin Hotel would be crowdfunded through Patreon. [8] [17] [18]
SpindleHorse
Medrano founded the animation studio SpindleHorse, 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] In 2020, the pilot episode of Hazbin Hotel was honored at The Webby Awards. [29] Animation Magazine said that A24 was taking a "bold step" by picking up the series. [30] 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". [31]
On September 30, 2020, Medrano released an animated short film titled "Bad Luck Jack", based on ZooPhobia. [32] The short was nominated and won for a Ursa Major Award in the "Best Dramatic Short Work" category. [33] [34] The short was also listed as a "Recommended Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work" on the Ursa Major Award website. [35]
On April 25, 2025 it was announced that Helluva Boss would now be available on Amazon Prime Video as well as YouTube, with Medrano expressing that she was grateful to Prime Video for the opportunity and what it "means for the continued rise of indie animation." [36] It was later reported that Medrano, and Spindlehorse itself, would retain "full creative control and final cut on the series." [37] [38] The Hollywood Reporter also stated that Medrano had signed a "first-look deal with Prime Video to develop new projects." [39]
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." [40] She also worked as a character designer on the series. [41] 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. [42] [43]
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, [44] and on the asexual spectrum. [45] 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. [46]
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 [their] dreams exist." [47] Previously, Medrano had described herself, on social media, as a "proud 'fiery' [L]atina," and said that Vaggie was the character she related to most, saying that Vaggie and Charlie "feel like sides of [her]self." [48]
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