Linda Simensky is an American executive. She served as a creative executive for

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

Furniss, Maureen. (February 5, 2008)
240 ''Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics''
''

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...

''. Archived at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

. Retrieved October 1, 2013.Lisa (Kiczuk) Trainor interviews Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life
, ''The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ'' and

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

Early life

Simensky graduated from

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1985.

Career

Simensky received the June Foray Award in 2000. On October 28, 2003, the

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the ...

appointed Simensky the position of senior director of children's programming. In 2021, she joined Duolingo as head of animation and scripted content.

Views of gender in animation

In the 2008 book, ''Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics'', Simensky stated that many male animators find difficulty in creating strong, positive female characters with substance that can serve as role models. When she questioned the creators of '' Rocko's Modern Life'', one of the series which she produced, why the women in the series were invariably drawn to be well-endowed, she was told that the animators believed that drawing women "the traditional way" was easier. Simensky described the creators as "talented guys" who formed "a boy's club" and added that "we pushed them to be funny, but a lot of their women are stereotypical."

Accolades

Simensky was named in '' Animation Magazines "Top 10 Most Influential People in Animation" list in January 2002.

References

External links

*
Women in the Animation Industry--Some Thoughts

Supporting Independents: Five Champions

O Canada: - Canadian animators
{{US-tv-bio-stub Cartoon Network executives American women television executives Nickelodeon executives Living people University of Pennsylvania alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Duolingo