Ask a Former Assistant: Neil Wade (Creative Executive, Formerly Nickelodeon)

An Interview with Neil Wade,

Creative Executive, formerly Nickelodeon

“I’ve always described myself as a big walking cartoon.”

By Matthew Threadgill, Assistant at Disney Branded Television; Co-Editor in-Chief at THA

Ever wondered what it takes to create a stellar animated show? From SpongeBob to Avatar: The Last Airbender, animation has shaped the childhoods of millions with series that defined whole eras of TV. And today, as projects like K-Pop Demon Hunters thrive, animation is proving its essentiality in storytelling.

Neil spent over six years as a Creative Executive at Nickelodeon, guiding iconic shows from script to screen. Recently laid off amid the company’s restructuring, he spoke with The Hollywood Assistant about his journey from assistant to executive, why animation matters, and what’s keeping him going as he looks toward what’s next.

Neil, you are an animation genius. An animation overlord, if you will. But you began right where a lot of us are, as an assistant. I'd love to hear the bite-sized version of your story from assistant to executive.

What’s unique about my story is that I was later to the game than a lot of people. After graduating college, I went overseas to teach ESL in 2002. By the time I got my internship at Nickelodeon, I was 29.

From there, my first real job was as a production assistant on Family Guy, which was huge for me. That experience was foundational in helping me understand the entertainment industry broadly, the animation industry specifically, and how animation is different from other areas of entertainment. 

My role was unique compared to a traditional assistant job. I wasn’t an EA fielding calls; I was a design production assistant, directly involved in design work on the show. When I started, Family Guy was becoming more cinematic, using more CG work, integration, and big crowd scenes. I spent hours going through storyboards, making sure hundreds of background characters were varied, not repeated, and that we weren’t reusing old designs.

While I still did some assistant work for my department head, it was much heavier on design handling. Ultimately, it gave me the foundational knowledge I needed to really understand animation: the process before me, the process after, and how everything fits together into the final product.

Given where you ended up as an animation creative executive, that’s a great place to start. You were already learning the attention to detail you’d use as an executive.

Exactly. And you hit on something important: I think anyone in animation would benefit from spending time in production. In production, you touch every step of the process, from script to post. Yes, there’s a post-production team, but as production you’re the one handing them the final elements. Sometimes you even sit in on final mixes and cuts.

Not every executive has that background, and that’s not a bad thing, but for me it’s been invaluable. It helps me know exactly what kind of notes I can give and when. For example, storytelling notes, my favorite part, have to be handled by the time the final draft is locked. I can’t be asking for rewrites at the animatic stage.

Because I know the labor behind every stage, I have a balanced view of what’s realistic to ask for, which helps me give notes that are actionable and respectful of the process.

And for our readers who are a bit more green, can you break down what a current series executive actually does?

Current series is the cousin to development. Development shepherds a show through “pregnancy,” helping create it and getting it greenlit. Once it’s delivered, it comes to us. We’re the nannies. We raise the show and keep it healthy.

Our job is to manage shows that are currently in production and on air. That means making sure the show stays true to the spirit and messaging set up in development. We protect continuity, character integrity, tone, etc.

The number one skill for a current series exec is understanding storytelling. Certain things are like clockwork: satisfying endings, setups, making sure the comedy lands. But it can be subtler, like noticing when a character is acting out of character. For example, I might say, “This scene feels too mean for this character. Is there another way to accomplish this story beat without breaking who they are?”

So in a nutshell, current series means managing on-air shows and making sure they maintain their intended spirit. That is when you lose your audience, when you stop being what the show was meant to be.

You’ve been committed to animation throughout your entire career. What about animation do you think makes it special?

For my generation and the one before, the MTV generation and up, we all have core memories tied to animation. We can all name a show, an episode, a moment, or a character that spoke to us in some way.

There’s something about visual storytelling that is unique. It’s arguably the first true marriage of fine art and technology. It exercises your brain differently, because you’re processing visuals and words together.

Animation also allows us to express fantastic, unimaginable concepts in real time. For example, humans have always dreamed of flight, but until animation, we didn’t have a moving visual conceptualization of that. There’s something special about a fantastic concept happening in real time. That’s part of why animation has historically been aimed at kids. Children are more willing to suspend disbelief.

1,000%. I work in the genre live-action space and I find that so many fantasy concepts are hard to execute in a way that feels real. In live action, things have to feel grounded. But in animation, you can buy anything. You can go into any world, any kind of character, and just buy it.

Exactly. And we’re seeing projects now that really push the medium forward. Blue Eye Samurai, the Spider-Verse films, K-Pop Demon Hunters, they show how much more animation can do to be compelling and exciting. 

With Spider-Verse, they’ve found a style that feels completely unique, unlike anything before. And that’s what exciting about animation, as long as there are artists with new visions, there will be new ways to animate and new conversations about what animation can accomplish. It’s a space with endless potential for how stories can be told.

I’d love to talk about your experience at Nickelodeon. The most recent tagline was We Make Fun. Can you speak to the importance of fun content, specifically for kids?

Internally, our mantra was “kids first,” which often translated to “comedy first.” In kids’ entertainment, comedy tends to be the strongest driver. Fun, playfulness, whimsy, all of that is baked into what Nickelodeon does.

And you could feel it in the atmosphere. To be successful in this space, you really have to tap into your inner kid. Of course, there were still budgets, schedules, deadlines, but it all existed in this container of playfulness.

I used to tell people going to work felt like going to class with all my friends. That sense of kids and fun was always the overarching goal of anything we did, any meeting we went into, there was a playfulness to the conversation, the banter, and even at the executive level. And It helped us have conversations that weren't as limited by grown up guardrails.

As a kid, most of my day was school, homework, and studying, and this is true for a lot of kids today. Kids need light shows to make them laugh amidst their responsibilities.

Exactly. Childhood has this sense of no limits. Your imagination runs free before the baggage of adulthood sets in. Being required to tap into that space every day was invaluable.

I don’t know what other office environment I could have thrived in. I’ve always described myself as a big walking cartoon, so it was fitting.

Being described as a real-life cartoon is a high compliment.

I’ll take it.

Curious about your career navigation. What principles helped you rise the way you did?

As cliché as it sounds, be nice to everybody. Especially in animation, where most people are genuinely kind and tapped into that same inner child. Every role I’ve gotten since my internship has been because someone I worked with liked me and wanted me to succeed.

For example, after my internship on Dora the Explorer, the PA I reported to was offered a job on Family Guy. He turned it down but passed along my résumé, which eventually landed me the job. Later, when I was leaving Family Guy, the internship manager at Nickelodeon reached out because my name had come up in a meeting. I was brought in for an interview for a role that was open and didn’t get it, but the interviewer liked me and passed my name around. That eventually got me another job at Nickelodeon.

That’s why I always say: be good to everyone. You don’t know where your next opportunity will come from.

The other big thing is being vocal about your strengths. Track your successes, pay attention to when people come to you for help, and notice what problems you’re naturally solving. Once you know your strengths, don’t be shy about sharing them.

What advice do you have for anyone interested in pursuing a career in animation?

First, get very familiar with what you specifically want to do. Right now, animation is shrinking. There aren’t as many projects, so it’s tough to break in. But it’s always been competitive.

My advice: think entrepreneurially. Understand the skill you offer that is valuable and that you can even do on your own. You want to keep your skills up, and just because a studio isn’t hiring doesn’t mean you should stop doing your craft. 

And network relentlessly. Reach out on LinkedIn, grab coffees or Zooms. Ask for 15 minutes of someone’s time to learn what they do. People love talking about themselves. Not everyone will respond, but send ten invitations if you can. Build relationships. Eventually, a time will come where there's a boom and you'll want to be in the pipeline.

Lastly, be specific. I meet a lot of students who say, “I can design, animate, and write!” That’s great, but studios hire for specific roles. Learn the titles (character designer, storyboard artist, storyboard revisionist, etc.), understand what they mean, and target the role you want. You can always pivot later, but to get in the door, you have to be clear about your goal.

As we round out, I’d love to touch on your transition out of Nickelodeon. The industry is going through so many shake-ups, Paramount especially. How are you staying inspired amidst all this change?

I see it as the industry going through an upheaval, a transition, as industries do. Losing my job was hard, but I’m staying inspired because I know there will be something on the other end of this process. I trust my experience and my career so far.

I see people still working on projects with the resources they have. I’m having conversations with artists who are getting together to create small projects just to keep working. That’s hopeful to me.

In a few months, I think we’ll see more independent content, and eventually the industry will notice. We’re the people who make up the industry, after all. To me, this feels like a hibernation period—a time to step back and hone our crafts. There’s hope in the energy of people who keep going, even outside big studios. That shows me this thing is alive with or without larger factors.

With YouTube, TikTok, and today’s tech, creation has become so democratized. We’re living in a creator’s market.

There are so many access points to creativity and distribution now that didn’t exist 10 years ago. That gives me hope. It excites me to see what people are creating, and I think it will be an asset for the animation community as a whole.

And before we go…tell us what you’re watching!

I’m rewatching Gurren Lagann, one of my favorite animes. I’m also watching the most recent Gundam series. Stylistically it’s really pretty, and story-wise it’s an alternate take on the original.

I’m watching Invincible on Amazon Prime. It’s probably the most violent TV show on television, but I love what they’re doing with the storytelling. On Apple TV, I just watched Murderbot. It had a really special feel. Surreal, but fun and intriguing.

And as of this morning, I started season three of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I’m a Star Trek baby, though I love Star Wars too, and Strange New Worlds is some of the best Star Trek we’ve seen in years.