Hidden Gems: Meet Svetlana Tkachenko of My Party Zebra LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Svetlana Tkachenko.

Hi Svetlana, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story with children’s entertainment started very early. Theater had been a big part of my life growing up, and I hosted my very first children’s party when I was only 14 years old. At the time, of course, I had no idea that something I started doing so young would eventually become my career and my own business.

What began as my first side job stayed with me over the years. After moving to the United States, I continued working with children and also pursued education in early childhood development, education, and psychology. That background gave me a much deeper understanding of how children communicate, learn, play, and experience the world around them, and it has influenced the way we approach entertainment at My Party Zebra.

Little by little, what started as a side job began to grow. I became more involved, started developing my own ideas and programs, and eventually My Party Zebra became my full time focus. This year marks 10 years since I dedicated myself completely to the company, although my journey in children’s entertainment began much earlier.

Over the years, My Party Zebra has grown from character entertainment into a company creating a wide variety of children’s entertainment and customized experiences throughout Los Angeles. But one thing has never changed for me: I want every child to feel genuinely special. I never want a birthday child to feel like they are simply watching another performance. I want them to feel that the experience was created specifically for them and that they are at the center of their own celebration.

Another huge part of my journey has been building our team. I’m incredibly proud of the people behind My Party Zebra. Their talent, creativity, energy, and care are a huge part of what has allowed the company to become what it is today.

I never planned this career or imagined that a job I first started at 14 would eventually grow into my own business. Looking back now, I think that is one of my favorite parts of the story. My story with children’s entertainment started very early. Theater had been a big part of my life growing up, and I hosted my very first children’s party when I was only 14 years old. At the time, of course, I had no idea that something I started doing so young would eventually become my career and my own business.

What began as my first side job stayed with me over the years. After moving to the United States, I continued working with children and also pursued education in early childhood development, education, and psychology. That background gave me a much deeper understanding of how children communicate, learn, play, and experience the world around them, and it has influenced the way we approach entertainment at My Party Zebra.

Little by little, what started as a side job began to grow. I became more involved, started developing my own ideas and programs, and eventually My Party Zebra became my full time focus. This year marks 10 years since I dedicated myself completely to the company, although my journey in children’s entertainment began much earlier.

Over the years, My Party Zebra has grown from character entertainment into a company creating a wide variety of children’s entertainment and customized experiences throughout Los Angeles. But one thing has never changed for me: I want every child to feel genuinely special. I never want a birthday child to feel like they are simply watching another performance. I want them to feel that the experience was created specifically for them and that they are at the center of their own celebration.

Another huge part of my journey has been building our team. I’m incredibly proud of the people behind My Party Zebra. Their talent, creativity, energy, and care are a huge part of what has allowed the company to become what it is today.

I never planned this career or imagined that a job I first started at 14 would eventually grow into my own business. Looking back now, I think that is one of my favorite parts of the story.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t always been a smooth road. One of my biggest challenges in the beginning was actually that I never expected this to become my career. When the business started growing very quickly, I was still studying, so balancing my education with a rapidly growing company was challenging. I had to learn how to run a business while I was still figuring out that I was building one.

Moving to another country brought its own set of challenges. I had to adapt to a new culture while building a business in a language that wasn’t my native language. Los Angeles is also incredibly multicultural, and over the years I’ve worked with families from many different backgrounds. Every culture has its own traditions, expectations, and ways of celebrating. Learning those differences, communicating across cultural and language barriers, and making sure we respect each family’s traditions has been an important part of growing the company.

Another challenge that comes with children’s entertainment is that you’re really working with two audiences at the same time: the children and their parents. The child’s experience is always at the center of what we do, but understanding the parents’ expectations, communicating clearly, and sometimes finding the balance between what a parent imagines and what will actually work best for the children is a big part of the job.

Our business is also very seasonal. During our busiest seasons, the workload can become extremely intense, with many events happening within a very short period of time. Managing that volume while maintaining the same level of quality at every event and making sure our team has everything they need is definitely one of the ongoing challenges of running the company.

Every stage has brought a different challenge, but each one has also shaped the way I run My Party Zebra today.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about My Party Zebra LLC?
My Party Zebra is a children’s entertainment company based in Los Angeles, specializing in creating interactive and personalized experiences for children’s celebrations and events.

Over the years, we’ve grown far beyond traditional character entertainment. We offer a wide variety of experiences, including character programs, interactive games, bubble shows, science shows, themed activities, workshops, and fully customized entertainment programs. We work with everything from intimate birthday parties to large private and corporate events.

What sets us apart is that we don’t believe children should simply watch the entertainment. They should be part of it. We put a lot of thought into the age of the children, their personalities, the theme of the event, and especially the birthday child. Making that child feel genuinely special and at the center of their celebration is incredibly important to us.

I’m also extremely proud of our team. Finding talented performers is one thing, but building a team of people who genuinely understand children, know how to connect with them, improvise, adapt to different situations, and still bring incredible energy to every event is something I value tremendously.

After all these years, one of the things I’m most proud of is that so much of our business comes from families who return to us year after year and recommend us to their friends. For me, that trust says more about My Party Zebra than anything else.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was a very active and creative child. My mom made sure I tried pretty much everything from a very young age. Starting around five, I was involved in gymnastics, singing, ballroom dancing, swimming, acting, English classes, and drawing.

Even before I joined a theater studio at seven, I was already putting on little “shows” at home for my parents, singing songs and reciting poetry. And whenever we had family celebrations at home, I would organize games and competitions for the adults. Looking back, it’s pretty funny considering what I ended up doing professionally.

Once I discovered theater, it became a big part of my life and stayed with me as I grew up. At school, I was also part of a comedy performance team where we created and performed humorous sketches, characters, and original comedy routines. I participated in poetry recitation competitions as well and received awards for performance and expressive reading.

As I got older, some interests naturally faded while others became a real part of who I was. English and theater stayed with me, along with some sports. I was always surrounded by creative people, usually somewhere in the group of leaders, and I was rarely the person sitting on the sidelines.

Looking back, it makes a lot of sense that I eventually built a career where creativity, performance, communication, and bringing people together all became part of my everyday life. I definitely didn’t know that was where I was headed at the time, though.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mypartyzebra.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypartyzebra?stkn=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mypartyzebra?mibextid=wwXIfr&mibextid=wwXIfr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@mypartyzebra1308?si=3M0mwx0OMKUxEPWv
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/RMNI4A-lNT
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mypartyzebra