Draft:Lucy Heavens



Lucy Heavens is a South African comedy writer and actress known for her series development work and script writing for TV series out of the UK, Europe and the USA with Disney and Nickelodeon. Heavens is a former winner of the Disney-Triggerfish Storylab, a development incubator for writers in Africa. Heavens currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Heavens has a background in playwriting, comedy, performance and voice over work and works mainly in animation and cartoons. Alongside Nic Smal, she is the co-creator of Kiff and serves as an executive producer and writer for the series, in addition to writing and producing songs and voicing Helen and Miss Tulane.

Early life
Heaven's comedy inspirations are The Simpsons, Monty Python, SpongeBob Square Pants and Animaniacs. As a child Heavens amassed a collection of self-recorded VHS tapes of The Simpsons. Heaven's grandmother contributed to the collection by taping and mailing VHS tapes of Ducktails from Australia (unavailable in South Africa at the time) to Heavens in Cape Town.

In high school absurdism, Kafka, existentialism, and her continued love of comedy and cartoons led her to study drama and writing plays.

Career
Heavens portfolio of absurdist plays led her to getting hired as a writer on the South African produced animated series Supa Strikas. Since then Heavens has worked on European, Canadian, and American animated productions.

Heavens met storyboard artist and animator Nic Smal at a studio in Cape Town where they bonded over similar comedic, animation and story sensibilities. Heavens' and Smal's collaboration on Kiff started when Smal started to re-shape an initial crude image of Kiff the squirrel originally drawn and imagined up by Heavens. Having recently signed with a manager in LA, Heavens applied to the Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa for funding to go to KidScreen in Miami where she would have the opportunity to pitch Kiff.

On March 10, 2023 Heavens' series Kiff premiered on the Disney Channel in association with Titmouse Inc. The show is inspired by the people and places Heavens and Smal experienced when they were growing up in Cape Town. In the early stages of the show's development Heavens and Smal would hike Table Mountain in Cape Town while discussing the stories and characters of Kiff. This led to the creation of Table Town, the primary setting for Kiff Chatterley and the show's other character.

In an October 2023 interview Heavens named "Blooper Quest" and "The Sound of Helen" as her favorite Kiff episodes. Heavens is nominated for two Children's and Family Emmy Awards in the Main Title and Voice Directing for an Animated Series categories for her work on Kiff

Heavens has an overall development deal with Disney and will develop new animated shows, films, shorts and specials for Disney Channel Channel & Disney+. The deal includes a second animated series for Disney Channel currently in development pending for a series greenlight.

Heavens is currently working on the third season of Kiff which was recently announced to be officially green-lit by Disney.