Meet Meridian Gray Culpepper | Director and Animation Studio Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Meridian Gray Culpepper and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Meridian, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
When I first entered the industry, I had a lot of personal attachment to the work I did. It could be a really good thing because I was able to come up with all sorts of solutions to problems that emerged at work and I connected with both the material and my colleagues very well. But it also became a big problem because when something I created didn’t make the cut – or for example, when I was laid off in 2023, I took those things extremely personally.

Because my identity as a creative was rooted in my professional career, the extremes were very intense in either direction, either I was the greatest at my job and nobody could touch me or I was the absolute scum of the Earth and never should’ve become a professional creative in the first place. It has taken years to figure out what that balance looks like in order to be successful at my job AND have a healthy distance from it.

The best thing that’s actually helped with that separation has been to become a director. I was told by one of my mentors that when you become a director, you are no longer a person in the eyes of your crew, you’re a figurehead. Which I actually like a lot more than being a peer, the things I say and the things people say to me all of a sudden I’m not taking as personally because I know that I’m here advocating for the project and not for myself as a singular artist. Being in a position of management has actually made it easier for me to separate myself from my work and be a better creative while actively working. This entire journey of letting go of the hold my career had on me turned into my first short film, Planet Jane, which is set to release in 2027.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Being a self taught artist entering the animation industry is one of the hardest things a person can do that I’m proud of achieving. But once I entered the industry I realized it wasn’t at all what I thought it would be, and I embarked on a mission to change that. In 2024 after a year and a half of being laid off from the industry, I started my own animation, studio, Herringbone Animation, to revive feature quality 2-D animation and focus on treating artists with respect to craft the best story possible.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hiking trails, parks, and busy shopping malls are my favorite places to spend time in LA! I’m a huge people watcher and will naturally go where interesting people are to sketch, take a nap, and see the city from a different point of view.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I wouldn’t be here without the mentoring I received in Women in Animation by Mia Calderone and Kristen Lester, Derek Thompson who looked at my throwaway Pixar application and thought I would be better suited for the internship instead, and the crew at Skydance Animation for having faith in me as a new story artist to take on such a massive project, WondLa.

Website: https://Herringboneanimation.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meridiangrayculpepper/

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@meridiangrayculpepper?si=BjZa8xtIsPbi7ES2

Image Credits
The image of me at my desk is by Trevor Legg at Leggacy Films