Brooke Keesling
Head of Animation Talent Development at Bento Box Entertainment
We started our conversation with Brooke Keesling interviewing me. Although I thought I was conducting the interview I never miss a chance to talk about myself, so I indulged. This first encounter is evidence of Brooke’s true passion to meet new artists, perfectly fitting into her position as Head of Animation Talent Development at Bento Box Entertainment.
Keesling started as an artist herself. She always knew she wanted to be an animator, it was in her bones. As a kid she would pause and rewind VHS tapes to study how animation worked to move beloved characters on screen. Being a native Angeleno only fueled this fascination as Brooke met many animators that walked into her father’s model train shop in the valley. She pursued her passion by attending possibly the most famous animation school in the world, Cal Arts. No big deal. Her professors knew she would be successful because she chased after what she wanted without apology. She put in that extra effort most people don’t.
This tenacity is incredibly exhibited when she applied for the Student Academy Awards, which she actually won! Yes. She won the Student Academy Awards. Her film is called “Boobie Girl”, narrated by famous voice actor June Foray of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame. How did she land June Foray, you may wonder? Well, she simply asked!
Again, putting in that extra step that could lead to greatness. So in her college years, her films were already playing in international film festivals. No big deal. This conversation wasn’t making me sweat at all...At a certain point I became painfully aware of how often I repeated the words, “That’s so cool.” But I’m pretty sure I pulled off the sweat glisten as a face highlight, so I kept it together.
As Keesling’s professors mentioned, she had tenacity. That quality has been with her since day one, and was especially prevalent after college. She graduated and started as a production assistant working with miniatures on movies like Dark Knight and Inception.. It was in this position where she began to help her company hire other artists, finding her true calling. “Kind of by mistake I started helping them recruit...And you know I always loved helping and connecting people. So even when my job was being an artist, I would be like “I heard blah blah blah artist was available.” I kind of realized that I really wanted to do that and pitched myself to the Cartoon Network. And they said “yeah we would love to have someone do that for us”, they didn’t have a recruiter at the time.” Essentially Brooke Keesling created her dream job with Cartoon Network, and nestled right into one of the biggest animation powerhouses in the industry. Again, no big deal.
After years at CN and then a few years at Disney, Keesling recently made the transition into her current position, Head of Animation Talent Development at Bento Box Entertainment in 2019. Bento Box Entertainment, if you didn’t already know, produces awesome shows like Bob’s Burgers, Paradise PD, and The Great North.
Because Bento Box is such a prestigious company, Brooke receives tons of artist applications ready to work for this creative machine. But she loves looking through new artwork and helping artists, and if you are interested in a position like hers, that is literally the job. “Have good taste in art. Watch a lot of animation and be able to discern something that is more amateur from something that is professional...and you have to be a major people person. You have to not be bothered by people wanting something from you all the time...I love helping people, and that attitude helps me to do my job.”
It’s not just portfolios she’s looking at. She’s looking at socials and videos as well. If you make a hilarious video with great direction and you have a great portfolio, that’s a great way to get ahead and show that you have the chops and the eye. Guess I better get to making more of my cat Tik Tok videos. Because there aren’t enough cat videos on the internet.
Amidst our conversation I had to interrupt. A secret of Brooke Keesling was revealed. Her absolute love for collecting vintage McDonald’s paraphernalia. Brooke was literally surrounded by hamburgers or what she called “Defunct McDonaldland”. This secret passion was exposed during covid because the hamburger room is where she conducts her meetings. Her dark, delicious secret is out there for the world to see. If I still had my pink hair and wore one of my signature striped shirts, I could have inadvertently impressed her as the first female Hamburglar. Dodge the falling shards as I break the glass ceiling.
Speaking of breaking glass ceilings, future projects that interest Brooke include, “Spotlighting more diverse talent and different kinds of stories would be incredible.” She gets to experience a lot of different voices by teaching at CalArts. The age old saying, “As much as I teach them, the students teach me,” proves true. She consistently sees life expressed in different artistic ways through her students. She loves it.
When I asked what she does for fun outside of work, she loves going to conventions and animation festivals to meet new artists and look at people’s portfolios. She misses social events like The Creators Society has, where she can meet new artists and people in the industry. Sounds a lot like her job. “The good thing about my job is I get to do a lot of the things I like to do anyway. I love going to animation festivals, theatre in LA, I miss the Largo, the UCB.... I miss events. I go to a lot of events. Being with creative people is my favorite thing. Connecting people. I love that I get to help people find work. That’s a really fun thing to do.”
To end our conversation Brooke Keesling has some especially wise words for us, “Tell your readers who want to work in animation to make sure their email is where we can find it. Make it easy for us to find you.” Come on people. Let’s get it together people. Put your email out there.
