Nickelodeon Shop Steward Lake Fama shares his passion for creative collaboration, how Shop Stewards can make a worker feel less alone, and his commitment to advocating for fair working conditions for all of TAG’s Nickelodeon workers.

Name: Lake Fama
Job Title: Storyboard Artist
Studio: Nickelodeon
Contact Info: stewards-nickelodeon@tag839.org

Tell us a bit about yourself and your career journey.

I started as a Storyboard Revisionist at Warner Bros. back in 2018. Three months into my first job, they pulled us all into the main room and said to pack up and go home—the Boomerang streaming service was shutting down, and our show was cancelled. (Funny how familiar that story still feels today!) We all scrambled to find new work, and lucky for me the Trolls: TrollsTopia team at DreamWorks took me in as a floater Storyboard Artist even though I was still so green. During my time on that show, my incredible teammates helped me grow into a Rotation Board Artist and Assistant Director, and let me direct a little at the end of the season. Since then, I’ve hopped around a few shows, dipped my toes into feature briefly, and eventually landed on The Loud House at Nick where I’ve been storyboarding for the past three years.

What do you love most about working in animation?

There’s so much to love about working in animation, but the number one for me is the creative collaboration with my teammates. I love getting to build off jokes from the writers and work off my supervisors’ notes to push an episode to be the best it can be. I feel like I’ve won an Emmy anytime a supervisor says, “That’s SO stupid. Let’s keep it in.” My favorite part of the process, particularly back when we worked in person full-time, was when I could walk into my director’s office and say, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Poppy accidentally dropped the piano on Branch in this scene?” And he’d reply, “Yes! And then he explodes!” And then our gag pitching would snowball until Poppy drops a piano and the whole earth explodes. Not a real example, but you get the idea. Yes, I’m available to direct Trolls 4, DreamWorks.

Why did you volunteer to serve as a Shop Steward?

As someone who has been in situations in the workplace where something of concern is happening and no one is talking about it, I know how crazy it can make you feel to go through that alone, and how important it is to have someone in your corner you know you can rely on. I always felt that my Shop Stewards were one of those reliable presences for me and that they gave me greater confidence to advocate for myself and my peers. But at Nick we’d had no Shop Steward for about a year by the time I applied. While I still feel like I’m learning the ropes when it comes to all the technicalities of our contracts and negotiations, I’ve advocated for my peers in the past, and I’m confident in my ability to hear their concerns, look into solutions, and stand by their side through it all.  

As a Shop Steward, what are your priorities in helping TAG members at your studio?

I think a lot of us who are working full-time in this chaotic climate in the industry are all feeling gratitude to just have a job at all, but as a result, I think people are feeling pressure to do whatever they can to keep their jobs—including allowing minor contract breaches and free overtime work. One of my main goals is to help my peers at Nick feel confident advocating for themselves and for upholding our contract terms even in this tumultuous time. We need to keep the gains we fought for and won so they’re not lost in the tumult, too. It’s important now more than ever that we keep our collective power and remain united as we ride the turbulent seas of the industry together.

Another one of my priorities is ensuring our new TAG kin in production are heard, seen, and respected just as much as any other Union member in an artist role. Production folks have historically been some of the lowest paid, overworked, and underappreciated workers in the industry, despite being the backbone of every show. We had historic gains in the recent Nick contract, but it didn’t solve all of our production peers’ problems. I aim to ensure our production kin see significant improvements in their working conditions and maintain their amazing fire that got them organized with us. 

You can learn more about Lake at his website and follow him on Bluesky and Instagram