Nolazco, Nallely (Draft for Alexander, Sofia)

 Sofia Alexander (Born in Quintana Roo, Mexico) is a Mexican animator and voice actor known for being the executive producer and creator of the show Onyx Equinox. She has also known for working as a story board artist for shows such as Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters, Infinity Train, and Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus. She was part of the animation team for The Powerpuff Girls reboot. She also worked as a concept artist for Disney Imagineering and their division of theme park design Alexander has also provided her voice for characters such as "Nelli, K'i'ik, and Meque" in Onyx Equinox.

Alexander was nominated at Animation Magazine's 2020 Hall of Fame Awards and won The New Voice of the Year Award for her work on Onyx Equinox.

Biography

Being born in Quintana Roo, Mexico, Sofia Alexander grew up around a lot of archeological sites such as temples and her grandfather being proud of their indigenous culture, saw it as something important to teach Alexander as he often told her stories and made sure she visited archeological sites such as the temple Uxmal in Mexico. While growing up in Mexico, Alexander had access to a lot of anime as it aired on television and watched shows such as Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball, Mikan Enikki, Rurouni Kenshin, and Wolf's Rain. These show would become the influence of Sofia Alexander's art direction for the show Onyx Equinox as the anime aesthetic appealed to her and its unique use of continuous story telling and it's ability to develop its characters.

When she first created Onyx Equinox, it first started off as a series of comic strips for a college assignment that was inspired by the memories of her grandfather and indigenous history as well as culture. Having learned how much history was wiped away due to Spanish colonization, she wondered what life could have been like during that era and begun to work on her comic strips. However, at the time she started, the comic strips only featured Izel, Nelli, and Yaotl. When adding elements of fantasy into her story, she took inspiration from Lord of the Rings and it's use of mythology as well as her love for RPG video games such as The Legend of Zelda. As she researched monsters in mythology for her series she also took inspiration from the film Aliens as she felt like there had to be something similar in Mesoamerican mythology. By the time she was working on her senior project in collage, she finally completed the story and it's full cast of character. However, when she finished it and moved to Los Angeles, it took her about 11 years to pitch the series and her manager had suggested to pitch the idea to companies such as Frederator, Netflix, and Crunchyroll. When she did her pitch for the series at Crunchyroll, she met with Executive Producer in charge of original development, Marisa Balkus and was approved as Mesoamerican Mexican culture isn't often portrayed on television and would be interesting to portray in a anime story medium.

When it came to using Mesoamerican mythology, while Sofia Alexander had prior knowledge to the subjects, the same could not be said of the Onyx Equinox team and so with the consultation from Anthropologist and Archeologist Dr. Kirby Farrah, they were able to learn and identify concepts in Mesoamerican history and culture. Alexander also received help from National Institute of Anthropology and History(INAH) to cover things the team had yet to discover of Mesoamerica Mexico such as blueprints of cities that the team visited and rebuilt the designs for the show. Alexander also put emphasis on the use of color in her show as colors such as pink and turquois represented historical symbolism in Mesoamerica Mexico. 

On the Onyx Equinox team, she had the chance to be mentored by Japanese Animator Kumi Tomita who also served as supervising director. Tomita guided Alexander in the steps of being a show leader and Alexander had to focus on the characters and their development through the whole series.

With the first season of Onyx Equinox wrapped up, Sofia Alexander has announced that she'll be working with Marvel Studios on an unspecified project. Speculation has been made considering her background in animation and as of now, there's guesses she could be working in the Marvels What If...?

Resume

Disney(2021)

• Disney Imagineering(Worked on the concept designs for a part in The Pirates of Caribbean ride as well as designing Redd's costume)

• Marvel Studio(Animator)

Cartoon Network(2016-2017)

• Infinity train(Storyboard artist)
• Powerpuff Girls reboot(Animator)

Hasbro(2017-2018)

• Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters(Storyboard artist)

Nickelodeon(2019)

• Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus(Storyboard artist)

Crunchyroll (2020)

• Onyx Equinox (Executive producer, creator, and voice actor)

Artwork

Sofia Alexander is often drawn to the Anime style as it influenced the way her show Onyx Equinox presents itself. 

References

1."ENTREVISTA: Sofía Alexander comparte los secretos de Onyx Equinox". Cine PREMIERE (in Spanish). 2020-11-20. Retrieved 2021-10-19.

2.Zahed, Ramin (2020-12-07). "Watch the Animation Magazine 2020 Hall of Fame Awards". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 2021-10-18.

3."Onyx Equinox: Interview with creator Sofia Alexander". SciFiNow. 2020-12-15. Retrieved 2021-10-19.

4.Hang with Sofia Alexander -Creator Of Onyx Equinox - on Twitch!, retrieved 2021-10-19

5.Studios", RorMachine | 9/14/2021 Filed Under: "Marvel (2021-09-14). "Marvel Studios Has Enlisted ONYX EQUINOX Creator Sofia Alexander For A Mysterious New Project". Comic Book Movie. Retrieved 2021-10-19.

6."Onyx Equinox Creator Joins Marvel Studios for Mystery Project". CBR. 2021-09-15. Retrieved 2021-10-19.