Meibol Alejandra Moran is an Ecuadorian American story artist from a LARGE immigrant family. Being the youngest of 11 kids, it was easy to be overshadowed. But when she got some crayons and paper in her hand, she was no longer the quiet crybaby of the family, instead, she was a brave knight fighting a dragon with 10,000 heads, or a wizard who can turn anything pink, or even a lazy basket maker elf whose best friends were the neighborhood birds. No one said these ideas were good of course, but they gave her something to dream of. Shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Naruto, and Teen Titans inspired her fantastical stories. Every complex mystery or mesmerizing new world had her hooked from the first frame. It didn’t really make sense to her how adults were making these stories for kids, but as she got older and her notebook was still filled with wizards and princesses, it all clicked. Adults were just kids that got tall and could drive.

But to the most important adults in her life, fantasy and art were not a career option. Her parents expected her to be a doctor or scientist, pushing Meibol until she finally found psychology to be a science interesting enough to study. But right as college applications were coming in with yesses and no’s, Meibol stomped on her parents’ dreams and chose a path that made them start praying for the best – animation. She started her studies at Ringling College of Art & Design as a computer animation major. Still, every day her focus would change. Monday she was an animator, Tuesday a concept artist, Wednesday a modeler, and so on. It wasn’t until she walked into her first story class sophomore year that her world flipped upside down. Here was a branch of animation that was uniquely complex, surprisingly detailed, and not only allowed her to write about lazy elf bird guy, but also DRAW him in action!

Unfortunately, her college life was interrupted when the pandemic forced everyone inside and sent her back home. What was once a comforting home became more of a lifesaving shelter, and real life replaced the magic worlds that would usually float in her head. Despite the fear and chaos, there was a small, but consistent comfort Meibol found at her kitchen table every morning. She was able to spend a lot of time reminiscing with her parents about their journeys in life. How her father came to the US at 21 with nothing but a 3^rd grade education and 20$ in his pocket, how her mother raised her 4 younger brothers while attending night classes and sewing her own clothes from window curtains and tapestries. Eventually she realized that her parent’s journeys sounded like unbelievable superhero origin stories.

These are stories Meibol grew up hearing for many years, but only now did they really feel heavy. Sure, there’s magic in wizards and dragons, but real magic was something much more meaningful. It’s the feeling in your chest when something totally unfamiliar still resonates with you. Real magic is an authentic and human story. When campuses opened back up, Meibol re-entered her filmmaking journey with a new goal.

As an artist and a storyteller, she was and is still dedicated to creating familiar worlds masked behind fantastic details. Meibol believes animation is a medium of imagination and daydreams, where anyone can see a reflection themselves on screen. She wants to make audiences look past a character’s elf ears or pink skin and instead and get that same tight feeling in their chest that made her think her parents were as unstoppable as superheroes (and maybe still make that story about the lazy elf bird guy.)