Nilah Magruder is a writer and artist based in Los Angeles. From her beginnings in the woods of the eastern United States she developed an eternal love for three things: nature, books, and animation.
She has written and storyboarded for television studios like DreamWorks and Disney. She also illustrates children's books, including the DACTYL HILL SQUAD series by Daniel José Older from Scholastic. Nilah is the author of M.F.K., a middle-grade graphic novel from Insight Editions and the winner of the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity, and HOW TO FIND A FOX, a picture book. She has published short fiction in the anthology ALL OUT (edited by Saundra Mitchell), in Fireside Magazine, and for Marvel Comics.
When she is not working, Nilah is watching movies, growing herbs, roller-skating, and fighting her cat for control of her desk chair.
March 24, 2019 - I'll be leading a workshop at Ground Zero Animation Expo on June 8 called "Making the Jump from Animation to Children’s Books." I'll discuss everything you need to know about the children's book market today and creating your own book. GZA Expo is held in Stanton, CA. Buy tickets today!
February 8, 2019 - It was a terrific honor to be asked to illustrate the new HEROES OF OLYMPUS covers for Rick Riordan and Disney-Hyperion! Read more about the new covers, released ahead of the HEROES OF OLYMPUS 10th anniversary!
January 27, 2019 - I'm teaching a workshop this year at Sirens Studio, part of Sirens Conference "The Visual Narrative." We'll discuss working on illustrated projects and how to write like an artist. Sirens Studio is October 22-23 in Denver, Colorado.
This film was my senior thesis, completed at the Ringling College of Art and Design in April, 2010. A baker's early morning work is interrupted by an unexpected visitor. Best of Ringling Entrant, 2010. Run time: 1:57.
Modeling, animation, shader creation, special effects, and lighting performed in Autodesk Maya, with the Pixar RenderMan plugin used for rendering. Texture maps were painted in Adobe Photoshop. Some sugar effects created with After Effects. Final compositing and editing performed in Nuke and Adobe Premiere.
Texturing Reel
Texturing reel. Modeling, animation, shader creation, and lighting performed in Autodesk Maya, with the Pixar RenderMan plugin used for rendering. Texture maps were painted in Adobe Photoshop. Final compositing and editing performed in Nuke and Adobe Premiere.
Animation Reel
My 2010 demo reel. Animation, modeling, texturing.
SHOT BREAKDOWN
All work performed by me unless otherwise noted.
Dialogue
Pencil test compiled with MonkeyJam.
Lip Sync
Designed character, props, and the set.
Textures painted in Adobe Photoshop CS3; shaders created in Autodesk Maya.
All modeling, animation and lighting done in Autodesk Maya. Rendered with RenderMan plugin in Maya.
Senior Thesis - Fairy Cake
Designed all characters, props, and the set.
Textures painted in Adobe Photoshop CS4; shaders created in Autodesk Maya.
All modeling, animation and lighting done in Autodesk Maya. Rendered with RenderMan plugin in Maya.
Shots composited in Nuke.
Flour Sack Jump
Pencil test compiled with MonkeyJam.
Push Pull - Natural
Designed character, props, and the set.
Textures painted in Adobe Photoshop CS3; shaders created in Autodesk Maya.
All modeling, animation and lighting done in Autodesk Maya. Rendered with RenderMan plugin in Maya.
Push Pull - Exaggerated
Designed character, props, and the set.
Textures painted in Adobe Photoshop CS3; shaders created in Autodesk Maya.
All modeling, animation and lighting done in Autodesk Maya. Rendered with RenderMan plugin in Maya.
Illustrations
MFK
These are a few sample pages from my webcomic, M.F.K. It’s a teen fantasy adventure about growing up, friendship, and learning what to do with the abilities you’re given. It updates on Mondays at mfkcomic.com.
Frog Skin
I contributed a short story to the comic anthology Cautionary Fables and Fairytales: Asia Edition, edited by Kel McDonald and Kate Ashwin. Below are select pages from the story Frog Skin. You can purchase the complete anthology, and previous volumes, here.
We Don't Go There at Night
For Halloween 2013, I participated in a comic anthology called We Don’t Go There at Night. The story I contributed is below. You can view the full anthology online.
Avengers
Well it shouldn’t be a spoiler anymore, but y’know just in case.
Like many fans, Agent Coulson was my favorite character from the Avengers series. Clark Gregg is amazing. I imagine this is what happens after the movie and it makes me feel a little better. A little.
Part two is Stark asking Rogers why he didn’t just ask Nick Fury for the original set. I LIKE THIS BETTER OKAY.
I also have no clue where S.H.I.E.L.D. agents get buried?? I lived next to the Los Angeles National Cemetery a coupla years ago, so I went with a similar look to that.
Experience
Storyboard Revisionist, Disney Television Animation, Burbank, CA. 2016-2017
Storyboard Revisionist, DreamWorks Animation Television, Glendale, CA. 2015
Storyboard Artist, Soapbox Films, Burbank, CA. 2012-2015
Story Intern, Sony Pictures Animation, Culver City, CA. 2009
Two girls set out to make a bit of money and come to blows over artistic differences. Anne and Bertie designed by Gabriela Zapata and used with permission.
HEROES OF THE ROUNDTABLE! With the powers of GIRL and the powers of SQUIRREL on their side, Kamala Khan and Doreen Green are an unbeatable team! But that title is about to be seriously challenged — because New Jersey has been invaded by a swarm of knights in shining - suits?! Driving cars armed with javelins?! Uh-oh. Kamala and Doreen are gonna need allies to help protect their home turf — and they know just who to call. Don’t miss the return of the team-up that’s got everyone talking!
Or, ask your local comic shop for Marvel Rising: Heroes of the Roundtable #1
Wutaryoo
Release Date: Spring 2021
Publisher: Versify (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Publisher's Weekly announcement:
Erika Turner at HMH/Versify has acquired Wutaryoo by Nilah Magruder, author of How to Find a Fox. In the picture book, an unidentified creature sets out on a journey to answer the question of “what are you?,” and in the process creates her own amazing story. Publication is planned for spring 2021; Tricia Lawrence at Erin Murphy Literary Agency represented Magruder in the deal for world rights.
Publisher's Weekly announcement:
Namrata Tripathi at Dial has bought Creaky Acres, a middle-grade graphic novel by First Second editor Calista Brill (l.) and McDuffie Diversity Award-winning illustrator Nilah Magruder, in a three-book deal at auction. The book features a cast of characters at a run-down horse barn, including new girl Nora, who has to adjust to the change from fancy suburb to poor rural community, and from being one of the few black girls riding horses in her area to being the only black kid in the whole town. The first book will publish in spring 2019. Erin Murphy of Erin Murphy Literary Agency represented Brill and Jean Sagendorph of Mansion Street represented Magruder in the deal for world rights.
From New York Times bestselling author Daniel José Older, the astounding first book in a new series that blends history and fantasy like never before.
It's 1863 and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker.
Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have set up an independent community, a safe haven from the threats of Manhattan. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback, discover new friends and amazing dinosaurs, and plot to take down Riker. Can Magdalys and the squad rescue the rest of their friends before it's too late?
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages
Release Date: February 28, 2018
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Take a journey through time and genres and discover a past where queer figures live, love and shape the world around them. Seventeen of the best young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens.
From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.
Release Date: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Insight Comics
A fantastic adventure following the story of Abbie, a deaf girl with a mysterious power, who is traveling across a vast desert to scatter her mother’s ashes.
In a world of sleeping gods, a broken government, and a fragile peace held in the hands of the corrupt, one youth must find the strength to stand up against evil and save humanity.
This story is not about that youth.
It’s about Abbie, who just wants to get to the mountain range called the Potter’s Spine, scatter her mother’s ashes, and then live out her life in sweet, blissful solitude. Unfortunately, everyone she meets wants to whine at her about their woes, tag along on her quest, arrest her for no reason, or blow her to bits.
Journeys are hard on the social recluses of the world.
Release Date: November 15, 2016
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Equipped with a camera and determination, a little girl sets out to track down an elusive red fox. But foxes are sneaky, and it proves more difficult than she thought.
Nilah Magruder's debut picture book charmingly tells the story of what it means to not give up and how sometimes what you're looking for is closer than you think.
In September, TIPPY-TOE is flying SOLO (until Squirrel Girl is done studying)! But when a villain threatens Central Park, she's gotta call in the big guns. Enormous guns, relatively speaking (because Tippy and ROCKET RACCOON are small)! It's the team-up — written by Nilah Magruder — you would have demanded if you knew your worth! You're wonderful, and you deserve beautiful things!
