Heather Patterson’s story began in the frigid mountains of central Russia. However, fate knew that the cold wasn’t for her, so when Heather was adopted she was whisked away only to find herself living under the scorching Texas sun instead. Heather grew up in a ‘Loud House’ of her own with her many adopted siblings and cousin and watching Saturday morning cartoons every weekend was her family’s main event. This weekly ritual became the fabric of how she connected and bonded with her new family. Kid Heather also found her happy place in piles of comics like Garfield and The Far Side, collected Dragon Ball Z graphic novels, and secretly watched late night shows on Adult Swim (sorry Mom and Dad).

Heather always knew she wanted to pursue a creative career, so after high school she entered the Visualization program at Texas A&M University. She learned how to create many things, such as 3D animations, video games and gourmet dormitory instant ramen (the secret, an egg). Once she established her technical foundation for her creativity, she wanted to explore her more conceptual side. She entered the Texas Creative Program (for advertising) at the University of Texas in Austin, where she sharpened her creative thinking skills and built an advertising portfolio she was quite proud of.

She then left the scorching, humid heat of Texas for the dry heat of LA and worked for 6 years as an advertising art director, pitching and executing ideas for all kinds of brands. Heather fully focused on developing her ad career and, meanwhile her animation pursuits drifted to the backburner. However, even after a several of years pitching creative ads, her burning desire to work in the animation industry began to build again. She started taking all kinds of classes, from figure drawing to perspective drawing, and from sketch writing to improv, all while balancing her full time ad career. A lightbulb finally went off when she took she took her first storyboarding class, and she realized that as a story artist she could combine all of her passions, education, and work experience into an animation job. She knew that she wanted to work on something with heart and humor, so she applied to the Nickelodeon Artist Program. The Nick application became her North Star – a tangible goal that motivated her as she steadily improved her skills and portfolio.

Heather is ecstatic that the Nickelodeon Artist Program is what will mark the beginning of her animation career. Heather aims to create stories that teach the new generations that your weirdness and what makes you different is the very best part of you, and is excited to work alongside artists who have the same silliness and acceptance that their creations do.