The Simpsons animator is Emmy-winning Filipino

LOS ANGELES — Meet Jess Espanola, the Emmy award-winning assistant director of the popular animated TV show, The Simpsons. He is also the first native Filipino to win such a prestigious award, deemed as the television counterpart of the Oscars. Espanola, 49, won for the episode, “Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind," which was broadcast on December 16, 2007 on FOX. The episode won last year’s Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour). The show’s director is Chuck Sheetz, who also works on “King of the Hill." “This is an animator’s ultimate dream, as well as for directors," Espanola told Philippine News speaking in Tagalog. “I was so happy when I got the award. It was an honor not just for myself, but also for Filipinos." Espanola’s other high-profile animation work as Assistant Director include “King of the Hill" and “Futurama" for 20th Century Fox Television Networks, and “Baby Blues" and “Mighty Kong Show" for Warner Brothers. Under prominent studios such as Film Roman, Rough Draft, Burbank Animation Inc. (division of Burbank Australia), Marvel Television, and Interactive CD-ROM, he has also worked on a variety of cartoon programs and television specials, where he approved scenes and completed sequences for final character animation, background and effects animation, among other duties. Some titles to his credit: The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible, Adams Family, The Jetsons Family Specials, Bill and Ted, Police Academy, The Flintstones Specials, Hallmark’s Timeless Tales, Scooby Doo, Smurfs, Tom and Jerry Kids, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Hiawatha, Ace Ventura the CD-ROM Game, Microsoft’s Barney and Friends, Howie Mandel’s Great World Adventure, and Kidsworld Online. All these opportunities started when Espanola was sent by Fil-Cartoons Studio (a Hanna-Barbera subsidiary in Manila) to Los Angeles for an orientation tour. “Our studio gave me the chance to visit Hanna-Barbera as a reward for my good performance, with my multiple entry visa for ten years," he said. “In 1994, there was a Caucasian-American who’s managing an animation studio in Van Nuys who went to the Philippines to recruit talents to work for him. I was one of the first who one of the first who qualified and sooner I went to California with free air fare." No sooner, Jess was also able to get his family—wife Tess, a nurse, son Auriel (now 19), and daughter Jasmin (now 17)—to join him in California. After a few years in Glendale, the Espanolas moved to Eagle Rock in 2000, where they are now living. Eagle Rock seems to be a natural choice for Jess and Jasmin, a budding jazz musician and artist. The community is an artistic and affluent hilly neighborhood in northeastern Los Angeles, in close proximity to Hollywood and the major motion picture studios. Despite his Hollywood success, and some intermittent news of Filipinos gaining some degree of mainstream accomplishment in animation arts, Espanola believes that we are still considered late-bloomers in the field. “The Koreans came ahead of us in animation. They were the first to offer labor force in the US. It’s because my theory is they maintain and sustain business representatives here, but we don’t," Espanola said. These, however, apparently didn’t deter Espanola to seek his greener pastures in America. He believes in the traditional wisdom of being persistent, to the point of stubbornness. “Whatever talent you have, if you enjoy it, you have to pursue it. You should not be discouraged when people tell you that there’s no money there. Money will come. Your work will find a way towards financial stability." Jess recalls his modest beginning before a group of grade school students in his home barrio of San Miguel in the agricultural town of Lubao in Pampanga. It began with his journey to Manila in 1974 to get a high school education, carrying with him “a bag of clothes, little money for fare and a big dream." To be able to finance his schooling at Claro M. Recto High in Sampaloc, he took a dishwasher job in a restaurant and drew art for the school’s bulletin boards. “There were times I can’t pay some contributions to the school, my teacher scolded me. I told her I haven’t even eaten breakfast, she harshly told me, why did you go to class when you have not eaten yet? Tears from my eyes fell, I answered, I have no money to buy food." On his last two years in high school, Jess transferred to Lakan Dula in the harsh neighborhood of Tondo, where he had to take on babysitting chores for his aunt in exchange for his continuing education. In those years, he also found spiritual strength in the Bible—he was a school coordinator for the Youth Marian Crusade Charismatic Movement at Don Bosco in Mandaluyong. He first thought of entering Catholic priesthood to be able to go to college, but thought better of it—instead, he tried to enroll at some universities that offer mass communication to pursue “my dream of becoming radio announcer or reporter, or to get a job in mass media but the opportunity was a narrow pathway." Until a journalism teacher in high school—who saw promise in the young man’s art—helped Jess get a talent test at the College of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines’ Diliman campus (where he graduated in 1984). “Human community is mainly divided into three, the upper, the middle and the lower levels," he told the students from Lubao. “When time comes, life’s success is in your hands, and when you reached the upper or middle level, the true essence of education is tested and measured by turning ones eyes downward, to the people at the lower place." - Philippine News