Today we’d like to introduce you to Sadako Leong-Suzuki
Hi Sadako, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
While I’ve spent the last 10 years living down here in LA, I was born and raised in San Francisco. Art and community were always really important in our house, as my parents both worked for non-profit organizations aimed toward helping the local Asian Community, in particular those in low income households. I was very lucky to always have the emotional and financial support from my parents to pursue an art career – I believe in part it was because they value the arts, and also recognized the passion I had for drawing as the same as they have in their community work. I’d like to think that because of them, I was encouraged not only to be creative and silly in my own way, but also develop deep compassion and empathy which is at the heart of any of my work.
In High School, I would spend 3+ hours every school day learning art fundamentals such as composition, anatomy, and perspective – much of which I funneled into my nerdy interests (haha). It was in High School that I started to really seek out and embrace my nerdy interests and build nerdy friendships. It was through letting myself really get into reading manga, watching anime, and watching cartoons, that I discovered two things – 1) how much I thrived amongst creative, nerdy weirdos 2) Storyboarding. I think a lot of people in animation have an “Aha!” moment for when they discover that there are jobs in animation – and for me it was finding Adventure Time Storyboards. Up until that point I had considered getting into comics or illustration, but Storyboarding seemed like a perfect marriage of writing/story, drawing, and accounting for movement. And so, after that point, I started slowly branching out my research into animation and film.
Those discoveries made it clear what I wanted to apply for for college – so by the time I graduated I was getting ready to move down to sunny Los Angeles to, like MANY many LA transplants, get into Hollywood (or more accurately, Burbank). I ended up attending Loyola Marymount University, where I studied Animation and Minored in Screenwriting. There, I learned a lot more about Animation and Film, started developing a work ethic, and began to plant the seeds that would become my long term friendships and community.
Once I graduated from LMU, through an upperclassman I had worked with, I was very lucky and landed my first industry job as a Production Assistant on DreamWorks/Netflix’s Spirit Riding Free. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to launch my career with, and ever since I’ve been working in animation, eventually moving from Production work to my first art job on Kung fu Panda the Dragon Knight. Up until recently, I called DreamWorks my home – I just finished my 3rd and most recent project as a Storyboard Revisionist on Jurassic World: Chaos Theory in June this year. It was an incredible almost 6 years, where I got to learn so much as – from working in production, to working on boards, and eventually contributing for a short stint as a Shop Steward for the Animation Guild. While I look forward to whatever comes next for me, I will always look back with love at the people that shaped me and supported me up to this point, and hope to pay it forward.
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?
All things considered, I have overall been very lucky. That said, as an artist, there have been some things I’ve struggled with – namely Imposters Syndrome, Burnout, and my personal identity in relation to who I am as an artist. For those less familiar, “Imposters Syndrome” is “a psychological condition that is characterized by persistent doubt concerning one’s abilities or accomplishments accompanied by the fear of being exposed as a fraud despite evidence of one’s ongoing success.” (Webster’s Dictionary). And also according to Webster’s Dictionary, Burnout can be defined as “exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration.” While I know MANY artists who have struggled with versions of both Imposters Syndrome and Burnout, I can only speak to my own experience, and how they have shaped me over the years.
During my senior year and after graduating university, I faced a tough time with Imposters Syndrome, which led to Burnout. In my last college years I had taken a particular course well-known for both its rigorous work and difficulty – but if you did well and survived, you’d learn a lot. Initially, while as demanding as I had anticipated, I did legitimately enjoy the challenge and felt like I was growing. Unfortunately, midway through, one of the assignments went awry for various reasons, affecting me emotionally and physically. It also caused me to question if I was good enough to pursue Storyboarding as a career. Up until that point I strove not to necessarily BE the best, as I never wanted to set myself up for unrealistic expectations, but at least show I’d always TRY my best. But after that incident, it made me feel like even trying your best was an unrealistic expectation, like no matter how hard I worked, it didn’t matter – my all wasn’t good enough. This leaked into my perception of myself not only as an artist, but as a person – I can try my best at anything, and no matter how hard I work, I won’t succeed. For many artists, their art and even defining themselves as “an artist” can be a key part of their identity – so to gradually feel like you’re losing a part of yourself is…difficult I became very toxic to myself, and even lashed out at people around me, seeing their successes as proof that some people just inherently were able to gain things. My joy and my passion didn’t matter – nothing mattered. However, over time, things got better – after graduating, I think the fact that my first job outside of school did not rely on my artistic abilities, while still being around animation folk, helped immensely. I was Burnt out – so this period forced me to grow my social life and community, which I think nurtured my soul. To be quite honest, I don’t think I’ve actually fully recovered from this period – I don’t think I have quite the same passion, drive, and joy that I used to have with my art and creative endeavors. But what I have found is that I enjoy collaborating and helping my friends and peers through what skills in art I DO have. I want to embrace that currently, my main drive is to help those around me, while keeping an open mind to explore and nurture new passions in my art to blossom.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Professionally, I am a Storyboard Artist and Revisionist. For those less familiar with Storyboarding, Storyboard Artists create kinds of rough blueprints for how a film/show will be visualized on screen. This often entails working from a script or brief written description, and accounting for a shot’s cinematography, composition, direction, acting, emotion, and more. While most of my professional work has been as a Storyboard Revisionist (an artist who assists Directors by drawing/redrawing shots to address given notes), I hope to be hired as a Storyboard Artist in the near future. In particular, I’d love to try my hand at working on horror projects, as well as stories with strong character motivations and exploration. I also find anime-esque action to be very fun and invigorating. At the current moment, if I were known for any of the projects I have worked on, likely it would have been for my Revisionist work on Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, as well as for Kung fu Panda the Dragon Knight.
Outside of my professional art, I also sketch and illustrate for my own personal projects, occasionally dabbling in wool felting. To my peers, I am probably known most for my silly dad jokes and puns, as well as the work I do for our Union, the Animation Guild (Local 839, AKA TAG). When I’m not working on Storyboards or making a groan-worthy pun, I’m likely working on campaigns to help increase our Guild’s Member Engagement by spreading Union information and talking to members through Phone and Text banks.
In terms of what I am most proud of, it is a mix of a number of the previously mentioned things – at the moment, I’m extremely proud of the work of myself and my team on Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. On that show, not only did our team put in a lot of love into it, but it was in general just an AMAZING group of people to have worked with. Anyone who knows our team knows just how close we became on that show, and to be honest I credit a lot of those incredible people to helping me feel empowered to not only improve myself, but enjoy my work again.
Other than my work on Jurassic, I am also very proud of the people I’ve collaborated with while helping the Animation Guild (TAG.) Not only is our Union composed of some of the most AMAZING artists in our field, but also some of the most determined, passionate, and compassionate people I’ve ever met. One of the main reasons I got more involved with our Union was when I got my first art job in 2020 deep in the pandemic, I felt very isolated – so finding the community amongst TAG members helped me immensely feel more connected. Doing this work reminds me that honestly, often more than the work in animation itself, it is the PEOPLE in animation that drive me to stay in this industry – they are such a fun and unique bunch of people, that I’m proud to be a part of. I hope we can keep supporting each other during this extremely rough, turbulent time in our industry – that we can remember that Animation is NOTHING without the amazing individuals that make up our community.
Lastly – what sets me apart? That is a good question. While I can say little things, such as how I will always try to cook up a Dad joke given the chance, or that I’m not afraid to ask questions that will help inform my Storyboard work – I’m not sure what my real answer would be. At the end of the day, I really just hope I can be the type of artist and person that people will think of as fun and reliable. I want for people to feel comfortable, honest, and silly around me, while knowing I will try to do my best by them. So ultimately I don’t know if that really sets me apart – but I hope people will give me the chance to make them laugh and collaborate with me.
What matters most to you?
By this point, I hope it’s become clear that what matters most to me, are my friends, coworkers, and the community surrounding me. While art is important, over the years I’ve found the real source of support, love, and drive in my life to have come from people. One could even say I care about art and stories because I care about the characters (PEOPLE) in those stories, and how they reflect individuals in real life. If we do not support the artists – fellow humans rich with their own stories, emotions, and life – then we are NOT supporting art. And extending past my animation community, all communities are connected – worker rights, POC representation, LGBTQIA+ health and wellness – I want everyone to do well. If we cannot help people in GENERAL – then really, what are we doing?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sleong-suzuki.wixsite.com/work
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dako_of_tacos/
- Twitter: https://x.com/DakoofTacos
- Other: https://dakooftacos.carrd.co/
Image Credits
(Applicable to only BOTH GIF images ) Example works include work owned by DreamWorks Animation TV.
