We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Thea Kirkpatrick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Thea below.

Thea, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I wrote, animated, voice acted and edited 3 episodes over the span of 8 months, each one running about 70-90 minutes. The most meaningful project I’ve worked with others on was the Valentine Special. I got to work with more people from more countries. When you’re communicating all the time on a lucid yet hurried schedule, we all make deep connections – And I think that adds a lot of meaning to what we do. Some people get into relationships, some even happen to know each other at school or live in the same area, it’s a small world full of funny coincidences!
We don’t realize until afterwards that what we’ve created is a time capsule. The consensus amongst my actors is that the best place to record their voice acting is the car. One voice actor recalls recording her lines in her car while parked at a 7/11 with the windows rolled up, but everyone could still hear her talking to herself!
Premieres are always fun and rewarding, everyone gathers their families around the living room TV’s or school friends around their laptop, etcetera.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Thea, I’m the person behind TGK Productions, and I’m an 18 year old freelance artist from Northern California.
When I was little, my mom was supporting us from home. And when she was busy, she would either tell me to play outside or “draw a picture and watch a movie”, which quickly became my favorite pastime.
Ever since I can remember I wasn’t just watching the movies over and over, but the featurettes as well, and I was simply mesmerized. Seeing all the work that goes into a film, whether the actors were voicing cartoon characters from behind the microphone, storyboard artists were working their magic, sound producers worked with their editing softwares, it made a big impact on me.
My teachers used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I’d always reply; “a voice actress.” But since then, I’ve expanded my passion to nearly every aspect that goes into a movie.

I started directing in 2023, when I told myself; “Hey, Thea, you know what would be really funny? If you made a full length animation based on a throw-away doodle in your notebook.” And then came along the first installation of my animated series; Adventures with Gerard Way and Mikey Way. For which I write scripts, animate, edit, and direct voice actors, background artists, technicalities, musicians and sound producers.

We are in the age of fandoms, where people are passionately creating fan content of their favorite cartoons, movies, bands, etc. Fan-bases are perfect for crowdsourcing, and the best part of it all is that your creations get the right amount of exposure within that online community, because it’s a concept they’re familiar with, but at the same time you’re creating something new. And I enjoy being a little unpredictable, because suddenly everyone’s freaking out that you made their favorite band member accidentally fall in love with a fridge and serenade it for a good 5 minutes. (I love being a songwriter.)
I have a very friendly approach to collaborating; none of us make a profit, but we work for the experience and the fun of it. When people get to work with me, they’re working towards something to add to their resumé, and I take great pleasure in giving people a spotlight.
Working with large groups online is a great opportunity to collaborate internationally and learn about everybody’s cultures.
To name a few areas I’ve worked with besides North and South America: Ireland, the United Kingdom, Central and South Eastern Europe, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand.
Managing *who* has to do *what* assigned work by certain deadlines is incredibly overwhelming to manage all by yourself, but absolutely exhilarating. Whenever we go into production, it’s just like summer camp, and I’m the camp ranger.
But after I collect everyone’s work, I’m on my own, because it’s my time to edit the vision together.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It’s strange, but every time I began production on one of my episodes in my series, something crazy would happen. Friends falling out, getting unusually sick, having an apartment fire and even my father managing to regain contact with me after 8 years. It’s been a weird chain of events, but I always persevere and keep my eyes on the prize.

I’m pretty stubborn when it comes to actually working sane hours! I’m a very focused person, so with writing, animating, and editing, I’ve found myself accidentally working 10-12 hours on certain days, but 6-8 on average, and 7 days a week. Something magical, I’ll tell you, is when I’m in the early stages of a project, I get brief glimpses into what the final product will look like. And then by some weird miracle, it’ll end up looking *exactly* like that. – It’s amazing.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Discernment was my lesson. Sometimes it’s hard to make executive decisions. Like when I wasn’t getting pieces of the project from people when I needed them, or making late rearranges to cast and crew. I learnt how to be either patient, or make the hard decision of letting someone go and finding somebody new.
You have to assess all the sides of every possibility, and that’s why I’ve become recently interested in chess.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artstation.com/tgk_productions
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tgk_productions_/
• Other: Watch Adventures with Gerard Way and Mikey Way for free on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP10e273xI3j4jZqLMRftH9lECrMSiz9E&si=jvyrz7DqwGu2AN5U