Meet Saira Umar | Writer & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Saira Umar and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Saira, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Growing up I read hundreds of books, and seeing all the different worlds and stories so vividly in my head gave me the craving to make my own, in whatever way possible. Currently, I’m working in animation and towards writing for television and novels, but for a time, I was pursuing musical theater performance; they’re very similar in how you can immerse yourself in a setting and ensemble of characters and learn from others’ experiences through it.

Honestly, I don’t know if I would be able to pursue a non-creative career. My whole life I’ve been drawn to the arts, whether that be through drawing and painting, writing, or acting/singing/dancing— so even if I went down a different career path, I would still keep trying to get back to expressing myself artistically, and I think that passion for creating would take over.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
I’m really passionate about stories with themes like family, culture, identity, and following dreams. I have a lot of different interests and a unique cultural background, and bringing all those together helps me approach creating and storytelling with a wider perspective. I’m also really interested in world cultures and mythology, and try to imbue a sense of magic and fantasy/adventure into a lot of my projects.

In middle school, I got really into fashion design through watching a lot of Project Runway and Winx Club. That, plus the Animation Academy at Disney World launched me into drawing animated characters. Freshman year of high school, I tried out NaNoWriMo, a challenge to write a novel in one month, and got halfway through writing a YA fantasy book. During this time, I also started doing musical theater and worked to be a part of every show I could— if not in the cast, then as part of the crew doing prop and scenic design, hair/makeup, or stage management. I always loved creating things and gave myself projects to do, also getting into photography and content creation for YouTube/Podcasts.

This all comes together in college where I decided to combine these interests and pursue animation. My degree was in art, but I took classes in screenwriting, wanting to adapt that YA fantasy novel for the screen, and that’s what led me down the path to writing for TV and film.

But it’s always been a hard path— in theater, I auditioned for dozens of shows I didn’t get into. With landing a job in the animation industry, I applied for hundreds of jobs, and interviewed multiple times a month at various studios for over a year before I got an offer. So, it’s been a lot of rejections, but that’s part of the process. With creative opportunities you have to get lucky and/or work extremely hard. And you can increase your ‘luck’ by working really hard, and trying every possible route to increase your ‘surface area’ or chances.

In a way though, I’m grateful for the rejections because you can only get rejected by trying and by being almost there, and there is a lot to be learned from even being in the consideration room. Also, because it was such a hard path, I looked for every avenue and possibility, and was able to get a lot more experiences and meet more people along the way that I might not have if I had reached my next step right away.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I grew up visiting LA, specifically the SGV, every summer and Christmas before moving here, so I have my must-go spots down. Food: 85 Degrees Bakery, Porto’s, La Grande Orange, Boba from the SGV, Spitz
Spots: Huntington Gardens, Getty Villa, Little Tokyo, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
Shopping: Daiso, Century City Mall or the Americana, Old Town Pasadena

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to shout out the volunteers and mentors with Rise Up Animation and Asians in Animation (AIA). I’ve been heavily involved with both organizations and through them I’ve been able to meet and build relationships both with people who are where I want to be, and people who want to be where I am, and it’s been very rewarding to share knowledge and start to pass mentorship forward. Through moving up into a leadership role in Asians in Animation, I’ve been able to get experience I wouldn’t be able to where I’m at my career stage with managing a team and providing artistic direction for a crew. AIA has been an amazing community to be a part of and has helped me learn more about the industry and feel supported through my journey.

Website: www.sairaumar.weebly.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/_PrincessSaira_

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sairaumar

Twitter: www.twitter.com/_princessSaira_

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/sairaumar

Other: Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mixed-up-saira-umar/id1501979298

Image Credits
One of the pieces is fan art of Flora from Winx Club, another is fan art of Noelle from Black Clover