59 - Marlene Sharp and Judith Uttal - Autism in Entertainment 09/09/24

It's inspiring to see people recognizing the potential of individuals on the autism spectrum to thrive in entertainment-related fields! Join Samantha as she engages in a compelling conversation with Marlene Sharp and Judith Uttal about their mission to create meaningful, career-oriented opportunities for neurodivergent individuals and those with disabilities. Integrating neurodivergent talent into different sectors creates a more inclusive society that values everyone's abilities, including in entertainment! Stay tuned!

Here's what to expect on the podcast:

• How did Marlene's and Judith's paths cross, and what motivated them to collaborate on this mission?

• What is Autism In Entertainment Conference, and what can attendees learn from it?

• Steps parents can take to create meaningful opportunities for their children to pursue careers in entertainment.

• Resources available to help neurodivergent individuals build successful careers in the entertainment field.

• And much more!

About Marlene and Judith:

Marlene Sharp is an LA-based creative executive, producer, and writer who has collaborated with neurodivergent animators and entertainment industry workers for the past 4 years.

Judith Uttal is the President of the Orange County Asperger's Support Group and the Chairperson of the Autism In Entertainment Conference.

Connect with Marlene Sharp!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlenesharp/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marlene.sharp

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharp6250

Twitter: https://x.com/divamarlene70

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/marlenesharp

Autism In Entertainment Spectrum Spotlight – Dani Bowman – Animator/Educator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ4RSK8ow-Y

Connect with Samantha Foote!

Website: www.boisemusictherapycompany.com

Email: [email protected]

Consultation: https://letsmeet.io/boisemusictherapycompany/30-mi…

Register for Neurodiversity in Harmony: A Summit for Empowered Parenting: https://www.boisemusictherapycompany.com/register.

TRANSCRIPTION

Are you feeling overwhelmed by your child's unique needs? Wondering how to turn daily challenges into moments of growth? Discover answers at the Neurodiversity in Harmony, a Summit for Empowered Parenting, coming on September 13, 2024. Join us for a day filled with expert insights and real life stories from professionals and parents alike.

All dedicated to autism, ADHD, and other neurodivergent diagnoses. Learn about innovative, positive parenting strategies and gain a deeper understanding of how to support your child's unique journey. Connect with a community that understands and shares your experiences. Whether you're seeking new strategies or some reassurance, this summit is your gateway to an empowered parenting approach.

Seats are limited. So don't miss out during our waitlist. Now to receive exclusive updates and registration details, visit www. boisimusictherapycompany. com today to secure your spot, embrace the journey of neurodiverse parenting with us. This podcast is for parents like you navigating the world of neurodiversity with love and compassion.

I'm a neurodivergent mother of three amazing neurodivergent children and a board certified music therapist. Our mission is to create a supportive space where you feel understood, connected, and inspired. With practical tips, strategies, and resources, we'll help you and your child thrive in your unique way.

Join us as we dive deep into the diverse world of neurodivergent individuals, exploring topics like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, sensory processing challenges, and more. We'll cover it all to empower, educate, and uplift both neurodivergent individuals, And those who walk alongside them. Together, we'll create a world where every brain is valued and celebrated.

We're excited to embark on this enlightening journey with you. We are your hosts, Samantha Foote and Lauren Ross. And this is the Every Brain is Different podcast.

Welcome to the Every Brain is Different podcast. We're here with Judith Utahl and Marlene Sharpe. Judith is the president of the Orange County Asperger's Support Group and the chairperson of the Autism and Entertainment Conference. Marlene is an LA based creative executive, producer, and writer who has collaborated with neurodivergent animators and entertainment industry workers for the past four years.

Welcome to the show. We are so excited to have you both on. Awesome. Um, can you tell us a little bit more how you're involved in the neurodivergent community? Okay, I'll go first and then I'll let Marlene share her stories. Uh, I, to start off with, I am the parent of somebody on the spectrum. My son Josh is 32 now, but was diagnosed with high functioning autism just before he turned to the age of four.

So I am an ally of this community. And, uh, I I'm very active in helping people, neurodivergent people, have their voice be heard. And so my journey as a non profit, uh, leader started with me working with Individuals on the spectrum use Toastmasters, which is a public speaking, a non profit, to improve their communication and social skills.

And so I've been doing that for over 11 years, and that's been wonderful. And that led me on a journey to run the Orange County Asperger's Support Group, which helps high functioning teens and adults, uh, Improve their quality of life. And we do it that through education, support and social activities. And that led me all that led me on a journey to found the autism and entertainment work group, which is where Marlene and I bumped into each other.

And we have an unbonding hat. And, uh, it was there that we, we, we met. We're focused on was improving employment opportunities for individuals on the autism spectrum who were interested in careers in the entertainment space. And we just had a conference in April with over 400 attendees. And. Marlene played a big role in that.

So I will let Marlene tell us more about her journey, um, in advocating for and helping people that are neurodivergent. What a nice segue. Thank you, Judy. Thank you. Um, my name is Marlene Sharp and I am Aldous Leans, that's Samantha said, and then some. And my connection to the autism community is not nearly as long or As immersive or extensive as Judy's, but it's extremely heartfelt and I became involved with the autism community about four years ago through a friend of mine.

So I, I have a, I live in Los Angeles. I have a background in film and TV. Development and production, especially in terms of merchandise driven entertainment, mostly in the kids and family space. So what that means is most of the projects that I've worked on TV series and films are intended to sell stuff.

Mostly to kids. Um, but then when you're selling to kids, you're really selling to their parents. So I've worked on a lot of nerd brands like Sonic, the Hedgehog. Um, Yo Kai Watch, Power Rangers, Pink Panther, a bunch of the different things. And that some of those projects have been live action, but a lot of them are animation.

And so, um, a friend of mine, Beth Mackey, who I knew through the world of animation started teaching. At a school in the South Bay of Los Angeles called the Center for Learning Unlimited. And, um, CLU is a school that started about 25 years ago, uh, specializing in. Education for kids on the spectrum, kindergarten through 12th grade.

And then about six years ago, they added a program for adults on the spectrum to learn animation as a potential career option. And so my friend, Beth. He and I had worked together in animation. And she was teaching life drawing and a Maya, which is a, um, an animation program, 3d animation program. And so this was in 2020, middle of the pandemic, there was a bit of a panic that ran through the school in that everything was upended because of COVID and everything going online.

But then there was a realization that, Oh my goodness, we're about to, we're a year from graduating the first class. of this program. So it's a three year certificate program. And um, no one really knew what the future would hold for these new graduates. So Beth just contacted me and said, could you talk to my, my bosses and tell them everything's going to be okay and give them some tips on what The students can do when they graduate and, um, make them feel better.

And so I said, I, I could do that, but I will just be flying by the seat of my pants. I've never worked with the autism community or anything like that, but I am a good hand holder and a sympathetic listener and, uh, and I'm friend of Beth. So wanting to help her out. So, um, she just set us all up to meet and that's led to a series of zooms and then they engaged me as a consultant.

So I've been working as a consultant for CLU for the last four years. And then, um, about a year or so into my tenure with CLU, we opened a studio. So the first class graduated. In fact, we were about to graduate our fourth class of, um, animators. And then when they graduate, they move into Brainstorm Productions, which is the studio for hire, where the artist can put their skills to work.

So part of my job is bringing in work for hire projects with third party clients that they can, that the The new graduates can work with. Um, and then I do a lot of outreach to the entertainment community. And I've also facilitated some projects, essentially as a producer, because I bring in the paying clients, usually they're friends of mine, uh, friends from the industry or, you know, work associates and whatever.

So I'll, I'll be the connecting point between the animators and the And the, uh, the client. So, um, anyway, that's a long story about how I got into the, uh, autism community. But last year, uh, our studio brainstorm received a grant from the California department of developmental services. And so did Judy and, uh, the Orange County Asperger's Support Group.

And so very quickly we realized that we were moving in parallel, uh, similar circles. So, and also the, um, the, the California DDS was very good about introducing the various grant recipients to each other. So we had that connection and then we had various friends in the community who had suggested to both of us that we, And, um, and so we did, and then I became the head of PR and sponsorships for the autism and entertainment conference, and.

We had our conference on April 3rd, as Judy said. That's awesome. Um, Marlene, I just have to tell you, I was reading through podcast applications and I was talking to my husband and I said, this, this woman worked on Sonic and he was like, what? That, that is so cool. And he was so excited about it. And, and Power Rangers too, like Power Rangers and Sonic, he was like, you have to interview her.

That is amazing. So I just. I think that's really funny, but, um, yeah, but I love your journey of both of your journeys in this and that you came together to create this awesome conference. So can you tell us a little bit more about the conference and like what people can learn or what you focus on and all of that?

So I'll, I'll start, uh, the, the mission of the conference. was really to educate what we call talent, which are people who have had at least two years of education experience in one of a number of entertainment related disciplines, whether it's film and TV, animation, uh, game design or acting. And to help them launch their careers.

And similarly, what we found was that the entertainment organizations, although very strongly supportive of diversity, haven't, haven't opened that up to neurodiversity. And so what we wanted to have happen is. That they expanded their definition to include neurodiversity and also, autism has had a very, um, positive impact in the technology space and the brand is very strong there.

And what we wanted to do is to extend that positive brand into entertainment. Related work. So that was that was our our mission And we had a full day on april 5th at the skirball cultural center, which is in los angeles very central to Between the valley and the west side which is where many of the studios Are and we had a full day conference that included About six general sessions where we all were together You Was keynoted by Jorge Gutierrez, uh, who is a award winning animator, voice actor, director, writer.

He, his, some of his shows include, um, uh, the book of life and. Maya and the three, and he's just amazing. And he is on the spectrum. So he was our keynote speaker and he had everybody laughing and connecting with him. It was amazing. And then we had, um, panels of people from Disney, Nickelodeon, uh, talking about careers.

We had, um, Scott Steindorf, who is a renowned director, producer, writer, and recently completed a documentary that's on PBS called Understanding Autism. And he really, he is one of a number of people in the industry that are late diagnoses of being on the spectrum. And, and that happens quite a bit. And so he, he basically talked about his superpowers and his journey, uh, with autism and, and Hollywood.

Uh, in the afternoon we had breakouts tracks. We had 10 different breakout sessions based on people's areas of interest. And throughout the day, we had an exhibition area where we had 29 organizations. Some of them were, uh, support organizations. Like in California, we have the regional center. So we had four regional centers, department of rehab, a variety of those kinds of organizations.

And then we had, uh, sub companies who service people like the regional center. They included companies that wanted to hire people on the spectrum like Disney. And then they included a group, which Marlane's organization was part of. Which we called educational partners. And these are organizations and there's over a dozen of them in the Los Angeles area that they have a mission of training neurodivergent individuals in, um, parts and careers in the entertainment space, which one, sorry, that's okay.

Um, in the entertainment space. So, uh, it was. And amazing day. It was, it were over 400 people there. It was amazing because the energy was so positive. And this group of people that were used to being called disabled saw themselves as having superpowers and found other people just like them that had an amazing passion.

For animation or film or, or their areas of pursuit and, and the connections that were made Jorge Gutierrez was so present that day. He must have had 100 conversations with people. And so it just really surpassed our, our hopes for an event. Yeah. So do you want to add anything? I don't, I don't understand.

I'm throwing my phone out. Yeah. Marlene, uh, what do you, do you want to add anything about the conference or what, um, your part was or anything like that? Yeah. So 110 percent of the credit goes to Judy for starting this. This is an idea that came from her brain and I was just lucky to be able to join forces with her.

Really late in the process when I met Judy was, I guess it was about a year ago that we became acquainted. Um, but she had already assembled a very distinguished work group of professionals who, um, had some involvement in the entertainment industry and many of them also have children on the spectrum. So they had been collaborating for 10 months or so before I came on board.

And, um, Me being a busybody, I stormed into the first zoom meeting and I was all excited just to be there and then started, um, Poking around with some, some questions like, Oh, could you send me your press release and, and I'll put it on all my social media. And, uh, I guess those were questions that maybe hadn't come up before.

And then yada, yada, yada. I became the head of. Marling really showed up on our doorstep at the ideal time. You know, when we got started on this, we had a mailing list of zero, you know, we really had to do a lot of outreach. We now have a distribution list of a thousand on our list, plus another thousand in our Salesforce list.

It's focused on the industry, but Marlene came in with a superpower of her own of connecting. People in the industry to whatever is cool and neat. And she really energized and made people aware of what we were doing. And so people, it was a California based conference. It was really focused on California, but we had people from New York and Canada, uh, wanting to come.

So, uh, Marlene really, my role was really to find the people out there to help us. Put together the show in the barn kind of thing and having someone like Marlene involved who Knew the industry and love to connect with people really helped Um, and so we were able to create a very positive energy that we needed to make this thing happen.

Thanks, Judy. Mutual admiration society here. Nice. Um, yeah, I want to switch gears just a little bit and talk about if parents are raising kids who want to be animators or who want to work in the entertainment industry. Um, something like that. What would you recommend to parents and what would you recommend to the kids?

Like, So that they can prepare to work in this industry. Uh, I'll let Marlene do a lot, but I would say get educated. You know, learn the tools, learn the craft. Yeah. And parents. Be supportive and give, give your child

an attitude. Share with your child. An attitude of miracles can happen, things can happen. And to believe in themselves and know that if they apply themselves and they work hard. You never know. And I think a lot of times parents are very realistic and are wanting to have their child's pursue traditional type of careers and We need to give our children the opportunity to be who they are and explore their dreams.

And so as a parent, I think that's really important. I'll let Marlene talk to the education part because that's where she knows more than I do. Um, but as a parent, that's what you need to do is, is Help your child, uh, see, make those dreams come true. I love how you said that. We were talking to, uh, Michael McGrew, which on a different podcast episode, and he was just saying, you need to see like the one to one, um, the strengths of your child and not focus on what they can't do, but focus on what they can do, and if they have a goal, then you can help them achieve it.

attain that goal. Like sometimes that goal might not be realistic, but if it's not realistic, then what's the next step down that they could do or, you know, stuff like that. Um, or just help them in any way you can to get to the goal that they want. Um, I just love, I love how you said that. Just help them and support them in their goals.

I think, you know, when, uh, when we created this conference, one of the things that I'm very proud of, and Marlene's been helpful with this as well, is we've produced six spotlight videos, and these were called spectrum spotlights. They focused on individuals on the spectrum in who were in pursuit of their career and were getting some success.

So it wasn't like they were at the very beginning, but they weren't famous yet, necessarily. Um, and, and the first one we did that's getting a lot of visibility is one on Danny Bowman. And Danny Bowman, uh, is on Love on the Spectrum. She's, she's the it girl, I think, within this community. And she started her animation company at 14, Danimation Entertainment, and she wasn't living with her parents.

She was living with her aunt and uncle. But her aunt and uncle are like the jet fuel behind Danny helping her Make her dreams come true and the things she's achieving are amazing. And so I think um, What I like about those videos is many of them have Moments and the more they talk about how their parents or their guardians help drive their success awesome And we will have links to those videos in the show notes.

Um, you should Okay, i'll put the one for danny's uh video. Okay marley. You want to add that? Yeah. Yeah marley What would you say? Well, speaking of Danny, Danny, Danny's company, Danimation is dedicated to educating folks on the spectrum for careers in animation, much the same way that Brainstorm Productions, the, the one that I've been affiliated with does.

Um, and Danny, I believe, Judy, you might know, uh, more about that. Um, and Danny specifically than I do, but I believe that, um, She teaches both kids and adults and does online. Training. So she does virtual training. And Danny is very, uh, Very proactive in hiring the folks that have trained with her. Onto projects.

And in fact, Um, so two weeks ago today. There was a screening of a documentary that Danny's team of animators worked on. Danny, because she's very busy, um, tending to her fans worldwide, she, she has to give the people what they want. So she wasn't able to attend the screening, but the director of the documentary, uh, the documentary is called Schlitzie, One of Us, and it's, um, it's a nonfiction film about a vaudeville.

Performer sideshow performer named Schlitzie. Um, he, he came to prominence through a film called freaks in the 1930s. And then he went on to appear in many different stage and screen productions. And then he, there were comic books written about him and toys and things like that. So anyway, the documentary was about his life.

He's. He's been deceased for a while, but this documentary was, um, a lot of interviews with people who knew him or who just knew historians who knew a lot about him. And so the documentarian, Steve Bell guard, he has a daughter who's on the spectrum. She was the editor of the movie and they hired Danny to put together a team to do animation because, because, because Schlitzie is a historical figure.

There weren't, there weren't, weren't tons of videos and photos of him. There were the movies that he appeared in, but not like baby pictures and things like that. So that's where the animation came in to illustrate these parts of his life. And so Danny basically assembled her team of animators from the students that she has taught through the animation.

And so, um, one of the animators, Faith Butterfield. Came to our presentation. So we had a screening at brainstorm productions, our, our facility in Torrance, California, and then Steve Bell guard, the, the director, writer, his daughter, Emma and faith Butterfield and her father, David Butterfield all attended, and then they had a Q and a with our artists afterwards.

And so I just. That was a beautiful example of the community supporting itself, each other, and then also it's a great example of, um, the educational partners who are featured on the Autism and Entertainment website. There's a list of all of the ones that participated, and there are more than that, but those are just the ones that participated in, in our conference, but those are all resources to check out.

Um, some of them, um, Charge tuition to study there. They, I think they all have scholarship programs or financial need, those types of things, um, brainstorm productions. The school part is called the Center for Learning Unlimited. That three year certificate program is 100 percent free to attend. The catch is that you must be a client of Harbor Regional Center in the South Bay of Los An uh, South Bay of Los Angeles, yeah.

Um, so, so, if, if you move to the South Bay of Los Angeles and you register with Harbor Regional, then I highly encourage you to apply for brain, uh, for CLU and then, After you graduate, you can work at Brainstorm, but, um, the other programs that are listed on the autism and entertainment website, you can research those individually and see what their financial aid packages are.

But Dani definitely has this remote option. I've, in fact, I think all of her classes are remote now. I, you know, I think that they're, that those dozen educational partners, um, many of them do have programs for younger kids. I know exceptional minds does they have summer workshops. So they have a lot of them have like these certificate programs.

So there's a variety of options out there for people to pursue. And thanks to COVID, you know, a lot of them are offering them remotely so you can take advantage of it. My my son got it. A four year degree from Cal State Fullerton in television and film. So there are definitely people that go through traditional colleges and universities and learn the skillset.

Uh, some people are self taught, so there's like a lot of great YouTube videos out there and things. So there's a lot of opportunity to learn. So learning and then creating and. Our, our ways and then networking, which is kind of the opportunity that Marlene described in a sense with this. Let's see, film is how people can maybe migrate in from a passion into pursuing a career.

Yeah. I love everything you said, like all the suggestions and what you said, Judith, about, you know, supporting your child and helping them in their goals. And then Marlene, um, the resources that are out there. That people might not think about. There's resources to help people get to where they want to be.

Um, so thank you for sharing that. I really appreciate. Um, sharing all your knowledge. Um, okay, so we are about at time. Um, is there anything else you wanted to share with our audience? Do you have any resources that you recommend? We have, we have already talked about a lot of resources, which I really appreciate.

But is there anything else that you want to share? I, I guess I just want to add one more thing to what we were talking about. And I, and Marlene talked about hinted at it a little bit. And, but it's another thing that parents can do. And that is, there are a lot of government resources out there to help you support your child.

And as a parent, sometimes it's overwhelming and confusing. But, If you take advantage of some of those government resources that can help fund or create opportunities such as, um, in California, we have something called a paid internship program that'll actually pay the salary of your child to get work experience.

So I guess that's the final piece that I'd like to recommend to parents is understand what government resources are out there. To support you and do the homework too because you just never know that magic opportunity may Emerge that allows your child to get some experiences that they never would have had Yes, we talk about the katie beckett program a lot because that's what I had the most experience with but Your local health and welfare office can share those resources with you And you know, you can always use the internet to google things and reach out to you know You Autism Facebook groups or whatever.

Um, but there are definitely resources out there and government resources that you can access that help move you along in your goals. Yeah. And I would recommend, I'm glad you mentioned that. Samantha, because you also should check out the local, uh, support groups within your area. Um, because like Orange County Asperger's support group, because that's, that's when you're going to meet other people that are on the same journey as you.

And I was the second child, so you're always learning from the big sister. So it's always good to have other people around you who are on a similar journey because they're each going to have something to share. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Uh, Marlene, is there any last thoughts you have? I, I think we've, we've covered all the, all the main things.

And just, just to emphasize checking out the autism and entertainment website, autismandentertainment. org. And, and also the Orange County Asperger's support group website, because there, there are things that are especially, especially for those of us who live in Southern California, but there are a lot of, a lot of things that you can.

You can take, absorb that information and apply it to the area where you live. And, and also the Facebook group is really great people from all over message each other in the Facebook, the OCASG Facebook group, and they ask questions and it's just a really, it's a, has a nice vibe and, um, like. Like Judy said, everybody's on the same journey and there's a lot of willingness to help and share advice and things like that.

So, and it doesn't matter if you live in Orange County or not. In fact, um, I I'm, I'm thinking of a lady that Judy and I both connected with recently, who's in the Midwest, but her son, who's on the spectrum. Is, is due to attend Chapman University in Orange County in the fall. And so she was looking to network with people in the area just to find out what the resources would be when her son finally comes here for graduate school.

So yeah, there's, there's a lot of value in connecting with people all over like that. Yeah, for sure. I have learned so much from being connected to groups. On Facebook and in person. Um, just about how to help my kids resources in the area, but definitely check those out. That's awesome. And our last question is what do you do for fun?

We're all about self care here.

Judy, you go first. The second time people have asked me that, uh, I like to go to the beach. I like, um, I'm a, I'm a puzzle girl. So, I like, you know, crossword puzzles, KenKen, Sudoku, you know, I like to do that. Love to watch TV and love to just be with friends and family. Yeah, that's awesome. And Marlene? I love my dog, Blanche, who's right here.

She's my, she's also my business partner. So it's kind of work and, uh, play at the same time. She's the muse for my company, Pink Poodle Productions. Yeah. And I love listening to podcasts, especially true crime, very much into following various cases obsessively. And I like thrifting and Comedy and and working, I guess.

I guess work is sort of my hobby, too. So, yeah I am the same way as our hobby, too. Isn't it Marlene? We're a little bit of workaholics that way. Yes, I am. I am. But if you enjoy your work, then that's fine as long as you know, you're Doing things you enjoy during your fun time. So that's true. Well, thank you so much, both of you for coming on the show.

We really appreciate it. And we're so grateful for your time. Thank you for doing what you do. Oh, thanks. This is wonderful. Yeah.

Well, they are delightful. Uh, what did you, what did you think, Lauren? What were the highlights? Um, I love what they're doing. Um, that is my, my biggest takeaway. I think, I think a lot of times, like, I'll, a lot of individuals for neurodivergent, um, especially. With those like autism, for example, like there's not a lot of push for like education outside of high school or what's the 18 to 21 program.

And so I get really excited when I, when I hear about things like this, um, that are helping them to pursue their interests and make a career out of it. Um, and so I was playing around on the brainstorm production studio website, uh, before he hopped on here and. Um, very talented, lots of, I highly recommend people just check it out to, to see what they're doing, because it's really cool, um, and exciting, and so I just love what they're doing, um, and I think it's just a, again, a reminder to focus again on those strengths and, and build off of that and see what can come about it and be supportive in that, and you never know how far someone might go.

Yeah. Yeah. And so I love that. And then I, again, I'll support, like, there's so much support out there if you're willing to look for it. Um, and it can be so, so beneficial in so many ways. And so again, just encouraging people to find, find those supports because it is out there. Um, so yeah. Yeah. I love what they're doing and I love what Judith said about.

Just supporting your kid and what they want to do. Even if you don't think they're ever going to get there, they, they can. They might. You never know, you know. Yeah, especially if they have your support. Um, I know, like, when someone I know is diagnosed The doctor was like, your kid will never basically do anything.

They're going to live with you their whole life. They're going to never get married. They're never going to have a job. They're never going to do any of that. Well, that kid is doing everything and he is great. So you never know, like, especially don't listen to doctors when they're like, Oh, they'll never do anything.

You know? Um, I, you just don't know. You never know. You don't know and they are capable and it's just different avenues that they'll get there. I think is the thing to remember and to move away from what we think traditionally should happen. Um, and be creative, be creative and have hope and all of that because dreams can come true.

But you have to believe in them and you have to believe in your children and support them in order for that to be that opportunity. So yeah, for sure. So yeah. Well, thank you all for listening to today's episode. Give us a review and rating. We would love that. That's how people can find the show. And yeah, let us know what you think of the episode.

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