Draft:Nic Smal

Nicholas Smal is a South African animator, actor, comedian, and musician. Alongside Lucy Heavens, he is the co-creator of Kiff and serves as an executive producer, writer, and storyboard artist for the series, in addition to writing and producing songs and voicing Principal Secretary and other characters.

Early life
Smal's obsession with cartoons started at an early age and skyrocketed when his family got a cable subscription to the MNET channel in South Africa. His cartoon heroes growing up were The Simpsons, Rescue Rangers, Animaniacs, BraveStarr and Rocker's Modern Life. He cites 2D animation as the visual style that he most gravitated towards as a child which has stuck with him to this day. As a young kid Smal would try to draw and emulate the cartoons he loved by doodling in his textbooks and teaching himself how to create a flip book of moving objects.

When it came to studying animation Smal only had one choice - The Animation School in Cape Town. However, in the early 2000s the trend was to teach and learn CGI animation. He chose instead to study in a graphic design program where he learned typography by hand, figuring drawing and photography. This broader education allowed him to eventually pivot back to his first love of 2D Animation. In

Career
Nic worked in the animation and art departments of shows such as Caillou, Florrie's Dragons, Boxed Warriors, and Team Jay. He also played in the rock bands Serving Suggestion (with his brother Tim), Gravity Wins Again, and Versus the Wolf, and later formed the comedy duo Derick Watts & the Sunday Blues with his Gravity Wins Again bandmate Gareth Allison.

In 2016 A YouTube video of Nic recording and mixing sounds made by his English bulldog Banjoe to create some catchy beats caught the attention of the Huffington Post in the UK.

Smal met playright and comedy writer Lucy Heavens at a studio in South Africa where they bonded over similar comedic, animation and story sensibilities.

Smal's and Heavens' 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. Smal ended up designing the entirety of the characters and world of Kiff, including Kiff's best friend Barry the bunny that caught the attention of the Disney Channel.

Kiff is inspired by the people and places Smal and Heavens experienced when they were growing up in Cape Town. In the early stages of the show's development Smal and Heavens 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.

The series premiered on March 10, 2023, on Disney Channel in association with Titmouse Inc. In June 2023, the series was renewed for a second season. In 2023 Smal was nominated for two Children's and Family Emmy Awards in the Main Title and Voice Directing for an Animated Series categories.

In an October 2023 interview, Smal named "Weird Delivery" as his favorite Kiff episode thus far.

In June 2024 Smal was panelist on the Disney presentation at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival called "Storytelling Through Music" where he offered an insightful look at the storytelling benefits of songs.

Smal 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.

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