Check Out Angela M. Sánchez’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela M. Sánchez.

Hi Angela M., it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Angela M. Sánchez (they/she) and I’m a Xicanx (Mexican American) writer from Los Angeles. I’m an animation writer by trade. As a 2025-2026 fellow under the Latino Film Institute’s Animated Spark Fellowship, I directed my first animated short, SPIN CYCLE: THE CHANGE WE CARRY. Previously, I was a staff writer for Disney Television Animation’s Annie-nominated comedy series PRIMOS. I’ve also written for PAW PATROL and its spin-off RUBBLE & CREW, Nickelodeon’s latest DORA & FRIENDS and KID COWBOY, PBS’ newly released PHOEBE & JAY, and AppleTV+’s Peabody Award-winning series STILLWATER, among others.

I knew I was a writer when I realized nothing could get between me and my storytelling. I was 17 and rushing to school early to post fanfiction, usually written about fantasy worlds I could escape to. The shelter where my family and I were staying didn’t have internet access. For my last two years of high school, my dad and I were homeless. We lost our home during the Great Recession and bounced from motels to cold winter shelters to eventually landing in a family shelter.

Fanfics weren’t the only stories I was telling either. To give ourselves a mental escape from our daily stress, my dad and I made up adventures about a dog and his half-hatched egg that were questing for a home. In 2017, I wrote and illustrated that story as a picture book series, SCRUFFY & THE EGG, which received a write-up in the Los Angeles Times (https://tinyurl.com/latsanchez). The goal of the books is to make visible families experiencing homelessness, to build empathy among housed readers, and for children and young people who are facing homelessness or housing insecurity, affirm, “YOU matter.” I’ve since shared SCRUFFY at schools, libraries, and, most importantly, family shelters. In November 2025, I was able to make the largest donation of books yet (over 1,000 books!), ensuring every library in LAUSD had a copy of the first and second books in the series.

My writing has expanded beyond picture books to YA novels, articles, comics, and animation. Across all my stories, I love featuring world folklore and fantasy, found family narratives, and protagonists who defy social expectations. If it has heart, comedy, and magic, I wanna write it!

However, writing was not my primary occupation until fairly recently. As my family’s breadwinner since starting college, I needed a salaried position out the gate. I was hired at a philanthropic foundation that focused in higher education and postsecondary pathways, and I was in the role of a grantmaker. The contrast of going from being homeless to being a pretend millionaire was stark—and rare. As a Latinx, first-generation college graduate, I had a 10% chance of completing my degree on-time and, as someone who experienced homelessness before age 18, a 33% likelihood of recidivating. This affirmed my family’s belief that “writing is a hobby,” and since my family depended on me financially, it could only be a hobby.

During the pandemic, I took a second job with LatinX in Animation (LXiA), an equity advocacy group. I began to build a community through LXiA and the Writers Guild Foundation’s Writers Access Support Staff Training Program (WASSTP). By 2021, I landed my first freelance scripts and by early 2023, I was promoted from Associate Writer to Staff Writer on Disney Branded Television’s series PRIMOS. I was often complimented on successfully handling stories that dealt with heavier subject matter, including the main character’s No Sabo identity (“no sabo” is usually a pejorative way of referring to someone who is Latina/x/o and doesn’t speak Spanish).

I’ve written on a number of television shows including: being a staff writer for Disney Branded Television’s Annie Award-nominated animated series PRIMOS; Spin Master’s PAW PATROL and its spin-off RUBBLE & CREW; Nickelodeon’s latest DORA & FRIENDS and KID COWBOY; PBS’ newly released PHOEBE & JAY; AppleTV+’s Peabody Award-winning series STILLWATER; and an upcoming show for DreamWorks TV.

Through the Latino Film Institute’s Animation Spark Fellowship, I have also directed my first animated short, SPIN CYCLE: THE CHANGE WE CARRY, which is now on the film festival circuit. The trailer is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwpoV0sXyqc

My prose writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, SOLRAD, LAist, and the anthologies SOMOS XICANAS (Riot of Roses Publishing, 2024) and AS WE CONVENE (Inked in Gray Press, 2024). I co-edited the recently released Latinx comics anthology, FROM COCINAS TO LUCHA LIBRE RINGSIDES (Mad Creek Press, 2025), and have been interviewed for the New York Times, NBC News, LA Weekly, La Opinión, KPCC Radio, and Unheard LA.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think the general life challenges for me were captured above, but I can share more about the filmmaking process below.

At the end of 2022, I knew I wanted to make an animated short film and I wanted it to be not only personal but also meaningful. I was also keenly aware that with a short film there’s only so much time to tell a complete story. This meant that our conflict had to be an everyday thing that many audience members could quickly understand and, more importantly, could connect with. So, that’s the “drama” of my first animated short film, SPIN CYCLE: losing your last fifty cents before you can finish your laundry. The rest of the story began to take shape from there. Where would the laundromat be set? A strip mall parking lot – the hubs of drama and commerce in any Los Angeles neighborhood. Who would have change? And who would be too in their own head to recognize compassion?

I had a draft of the script by January 2023 and did my own thumbnails to get a sense of the shots, pacing, and those weird animal heads that all the human characters have. I applied to the LFI Animation Spark Grant that spring and was declined, so I knew I had something hot! I reached out to a couple friends for a rough budget and to refine some of the initial visual development art. In late 2024, I was preparing to bootstrap an animatic, but thought about trying for the LFI Animation Spark Grant one more time. I reached out to an indie production studio I had become friends with, NuBoom Studios, and submitted with them attached to the short. And this time…we landed the grant!

We kicked off preproduction in August 2025 and by October, the first cut of the animatic was in. It clocked in at 6 minutes. Oof. Our budget was originally calibrated to 3.5 minutes. After reviewing cuts at 5 minutes, 4.5 minutes, and (a nauseatingly frantic) 3.5 minutes, I decided to commit to the 5-minute version, which would allow us the time and quality to make the best version of SPIN CYCLE possible. Our short was done and LOCKED by April! Nine months is an incredible turnaround time for an animated short, but we delivered (and the film is 100% human-made).

It has been a phenomenal rollercoaster getting us from scribble to script to screen and I’m so very proud of the crew and supporters who all made this happen. This screening is the culmination of not just years of persistence and honing my craft as a storyteller but the fruition of support, mentorships, and friendships that have made this moment possible.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Right now, I’m most proud of releasing my first animated short film SPIN CYCLE: THE CHANGE WE CARRY. The short opens with the following quote: “In each human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale.” In a bustling Los Angeles strip mall parking lot, Mandy is a well-to-do arrival in a gentrifying neighborhood. She brushes off locals, including the woman panhandling outside the laundromat, Lena. But when a dryer eats the last of her quarters, the animals inside of Mandy’s heart emerge – from tiger to pig to donkey – as she searches for her last fifty cents. Blinded by her own biases, she repeatedly dismisses Lena, who keeps approaching Mandy with a soda cup full of change.

With its everyday setting juxtaposed alongside a visual metaphor that lends an air of magical realism, SPIN CYCLE is meant to be a modern folktale. A lot of my personal work is inspired by (or literally set in) world folklore. Folktales aren’t simply cautionary tales or moral lessons; rather, they reveal to us deeper truths about humanity. I personally love stories where protagonists subvert social expectations. In SPIN CYCLE, it’s all about how social expectations can cloud someone’s ability to see clearly and with empathy. I hope that when audiences watch SPIN CYCLE: THE CHANGE WE CARRY, they can see how empathy starts when we challenge our default responses and slow down to connect. We make better decisions when we’re coming from a place of empathy first.

As a filmmaker, I hope to surface stories from voices that so oftentimes aren’t heard or are glossed over. In SPIN CYCLE: THE CHANGE WE CARRY, my focus is a grounded perspective of Los Angeles and the humanity of people who experience homelessness. In media, too often people who are unhoused are viewed to be only the recipients of charity rather than fully realized individuals who experience compassion and joy and who have agency and also goals beyond their present circumstances. When I was a high school junior/senior and my family and I were living in a shelter, the best visitors there were always the volunteers who asked how my day was, what I was reading, what colleges I was thinking about. Of the housed people in the shelter space, those types of volunteers saw me not as “homeless kid” but as a young person with hopes and dreams. The purpose of SPIN CYCLE is to showcase this rounded humanity.

We are in an era where the humanity of people experiencing homelessness is actively criminalized, notably with the 2024 Supreme Court ruling on JOHNSON V. GRANTS PASS which now allows cities to arrest individuals for sleeping in public spaces. In Los Angeles County, over 72,000 people are experiencing homelessness and over 47,000 are unsheltered. On a national scale, there are 771,480 people in the US experiencing homelessness (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2025). This is an 18% increase since 2023 and does not account for the millions of people who are doubled-up / couch-surfing. In 2022, 65% of people in shelters were first-time residents (up from 60% in 2019).

Sharing narratives that dignify and humanize the lives of people experiencing homelessness is more critical than ever. This is why, going in tandem with the film festival circuit, SPIN CYCLE will have a social impact campaign to be shared at various nonprofits and organizations dedicated to supporting people experiencing homelessness as well as at local community screenings. The campaign will help build both general public consciousness around the human experiences in homelessness and open up conversations among community members, housing advocates, and civic leadership.

I’ve served on the board of School on Wheels, Inc., a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that provides volunteer tutors to K-12 students experiencing homelessness, and I have delivered keynotes on understanding homelessness for organizations including the Pierce County Libraries in Washington state and Bucks County Intermediate Unit in Pennsylvania, and for housing-first advocacy campaigns such as United Way of Greater Los Angeles’ Everyone In.

After its festival run is complete, the ultimate goal is for SPIN CYCLE to live on a publicly accessible platform, such as YouTube or Vimeo, where it will remain as a free-to-use resource, whether within classrooms, among neighbors, or in a policy boardroom.

SPIN CYCLE is a VERY Los Angeles film. I’m a second-generation Angeleno and as such I wanted to make sure my city was represented not in overwrought glamour but in a plain, everyday texture. From the environment (dusty strip mall parking lot) to the soundtrack (our composer, Juan Carlos Enriquez, absolutely nailed the Latino funk main theme). I wanted to show Los Angeles without its makeup on. This doesn’t mean overly dark or rough; it means rumpled and real.

I hope SPIN CYCLE: THE CHANGE WE CARRY further establishes me as a creator who can be trusted to execute on emotionally rich stories and complex subject matter with care and humor. I hope that the film’s narrative accessibility opens up conversations around empathy and, on a higher level, housing justice. On another level, I hope that SPIN CYCLE showcases my ability as a storyteller to deliver on my own creative vision. The script is largely unchanged from its original version and, when our run time turned out to be longer than anticipated, I was able to successfully fundraise to close the gap, making sure the story was told in its most complete version. In the long run, I hope SPIN CYCLE leads to larger-scale projects (series or feature) that allow me to tell stories that find threads of resonance across global audiences.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
.There is strength in numbers. There is no such thing as an “auteur,” especially in animation. You might have a story, but many hands will touch it and many hands are necessary to lift it up. You and your crew and your community are the ones who get films made and seen. I have only the deepest gratitude and regard for my producer, Monique Henry-Hudson, our PA Daniel Perales, and the team at NuBoom Studios, who took SPIN CYCLE from pre-production all the way through animation and post-production.

The short also could not have been made possible without the major support of the Latino Film Institute’s Animation Spark Fellowship’s grant, Reclamation Ventures, and a number of individual donors and supporters.

Contact Info:

• Website: angelamsanchez.com | spincycleshort.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angelamsanchez.writer/ | https://www.instagram.com/spincycle.short/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelamsanchez/
• Twitter: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm14062751/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NopaliToons
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwpoV0sXyqc

Image Credits
Angela with School on Wheels team at Homewalk, United Way LA – courtesy of School on Wheels, Inc.

United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Everyone In, February 2019 – courtesy of Stories from the Frontline

Angela headshot – photo is Angela’s own