Since childhood, Booker Jackson has been obsessed with cartoons, kung fu, and comics. He could always be found with paper and pencil in hand drawing his favorite characters or acting out his favorite scenes with friends.

One fateful day, while watching cartoons, young Booker stumbled upon a behind-the-scenes interstitial on Nickelodeon. An artist was featured having a blast while drawing at work. It looked so fun watching him share the same expressions of the characters he drew. Next, they showed him and a co-worker shooting at each other with nerf guns during a work break! The segment ended with the magical words, “If you become an animator, you’ll never have to grow up.” That was it; The moment Booker decided he was going to work in animation.

After scouring the sleepy city of Sacramento, Ca, for a way into animation, Booker, realized there were little to no resources to guide him into such a niche career. Booker, however, was not deterred and instead inspired  to teach himself art and animation in any way possible. He began recording, drawing and studying his favorite cartoons, films, and video games. He would fill ruled notebooks and reems of paper with the adventures of his own characters and show them to his friends and family. He’d draw the world around him as often as he could. He even took up martial arts and strength training to gain a better understanding of the movements and anatomy of the human body.

Booker’s hard work eventually paid off as he earned admission into college studying animation after high school. However, financial hardships would only allow him to stay for one semester before having to leave. Bruised but not beaten, Booker picked himself up and went right back to his own artistic training regimen while working full time day jobs. After years of ups and downs creating art for conventions, art contests and indie work, he began to feel his art was speaking to an audience, stepping ever closer to his dream. He finally felt it was time create a portfolio in hopes of breaking into the wonderful world of animation. And to his delight, Booker was accepted into the Storyboard Track of the Nick Artist Program. Booker now looks forward to this new chapter of working with a team of like-minded individuals to help create stories that will resonate with people from all walks of life.