Hazbin Hotel/YouTube
- Vivienne Medrano spoke to Insider about her YouTube shows “Helluva Boss” and “Hazbin Hotel.”
- “I had no idea it would grow into something so big,” she said.
- Redefining YouTube animation, she’s carved out a niche for adult animation on the platform.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The princess of hell sees the demons suffering around her and has an idea – to rehabilitate these sinners in a hotel in an attempt to show that even the darkest of souls can be redeemed. That’s the premise of “Hazbin Hotel,” a YouTube pilot created by Vivienne Medrano or VivziePop, a group of her friends and fellow animators. Released in October 2019, the pilot has pulled in 54 million views, been picked up by production company A24, and has sparked the “Helluva Boss” spin-off series.
“I had no idea it would grow into something so big,” Medrano told Insider. “The fandom rivals very legitimate shows that have multiple seasons and it’s really crazy to me because we only have a 30-minute pilot.”
Starting from humble beginnings, Medrano learned through trial and error how to navigate the animation industry.
Medrano says that she’s been animating since she was little, pausing movies to trace the screen of her favorite expressions. In the third grade, one of her classes gave her access to a simple animation program with about as many tools as MS Paint. Still, the swan she managed to make move on her computer screen captivated her and she fell in love with the art form.
As Medrano got older, her love for darker animation started to take hold. “Batman: The Animated Series,” “Invader Zim,” and anything by Tim Burton captured her imagination.
"I've always been obsessed with sharper, meaner cartoons," Medrano remembers.
For college, Medrano attended her "dream college," the School of Visual Arts in New York City. There, she worked on a few smaller animations like "The Son of 666" and "Timber," both featuring demon designs with a similar aesthetic to her future projects. After graduating, she published her own independent animations on YouTube, but her end goal was to create an animated musical.
Medrano's original attempt at the musical proved a failure, with her teaming up with a production company that she says took advantage of her. She had invested her own money and time into this project that never amounted to anything, so she decided that things would be different for "Hazbin Hotel."
"I had met some people in musical theater at SVA, I was really excited to create something that involved them or felt more like a legitimate musical, but I really didn't know how to go about that," Medrano said. "I've had the characters of Hazbin Hotel for a very long time, they are some of my oldest characters and I always felt they would make a fun project."
Originally, the pilot wasn't meant to be a musical but rather just an adult comedy with a raunchy, demonic aesthetic. It took six months to write and two years to animate, but eventually the 30-minute pilot was released in the form we know on YouTube. Over those two years, Medrano had released teasers for the project, giving her enough of an audience and a budget to start hiring more than just her friends.
"I definitely think Hazbin hit a chord with people, they are adult comedies with this sharp art style that doesn't really resemble what most have come to expect from adult comedies," Medrano said. "They also have an element of drama and angst to them which come from my sensibilities."
Villains have always appealed to Medrano, having a fondness for Batman's eclectic Rogue's Gallery. Setting her projects in hell allows her to explore the theology of what makes a bad guy and what attracts viewers to their outrageous behavior.
Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss live (and die) on YouTube.
YouTube has always been the home for her VivziePop animations, but keeping the violent and sometimes grotesque demons on the platforms has proven to be a challenge. With "Helluva Boss," the short-form, self-produced comedy series starring a company of imps willing to murder and mame in the human world for a price, she and her team have had to learn the limitations of the platform. Nudity can't be shown, certain swear words will trigger YouTube's hate speech algorithms, and the first 30 seconds have to be clear of any controversial content.
"YouTube itself has not made it easy for animators," Medrano said. "Right now we are on YouTube because that's the safest way to get the most eyes on it but we aren't working for it. They have not reached out to me once."
Three days after our interview, Medrano tweeted that YouTube had censored the latest episode of "Helluva Boss" in searches.
—Vivienne Medrano (@VivziePop) February 1, 2021
The future of VivziePop remains bright and hellish.
Though she can't talk about the future of "Hazbin Hotel," Medrano seems "extremely excited about the direction that it's going." With nearly 5,000 patrons on Patreon and a merchandise store that's consistently selling out of product, it's clear there's a huge demand for her content.
To appease that demand, "Helluva Boss" has developed its own team of writers, animators, and producers that toil away to create the most creepy and combat-filled animated saga that YouTube will allow. That project still remains independent and Medrano plans to keep it that way to keep as much control over it as possible.
"As long as the audience wants to keep seeing it, we will keep making it," Medrano said. "We have a plan for where the story goes and ends. It feels surreal to me that I might be able to make one of my shows to it's actual conclusion just because the audience is so supportive and the team is so passionate."
Though most upcoming content will focus on these two popular series, Medrano would like to create content that's a little less ghoulish.
"I have the itch to do something more in the family friendly space but I don't know when it will be," Medrano said. "There are a bunch of other projects that I have on the back burner. Whether they be features or other series. In the future, people might be able to see those."