DIRECTOR, ANIMATOR, ILLUSTRATOR
Hi, I’m Hattie. I draw pictures and do colouring-in, professionally. I’m a director, animator, illustrator, artist, and designer. I used to live in a monastery and then I lived on a roundabout, because life is circular and full of traffic. I'm hoping for a lighthouse and windmill to complete the set.
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Drawing is at the heart of everything I do. It’s the foundation of my practice: from hand-drawn animation and illustration to experimental film and design. Everything I make starts with a pencil and some mild self-doubt. I specialise in traditional animation and documentary, with a particular interest in editing, sound design, and creative approaches to non-fiction storytelling.
Much of my work explores social justice and mental states, using animation as a powerful tool to represent subjective experiences and inner worlds. Animation is perfect for that: to show what reality feels like, not just how it looks. It lets you say “here’s how it feels to be alive” without having to maintain eye contact.
My films have won 16 international awards. They have screened at over 100 festivals in 35+ countries across six continents. I’m still trying to break Antarctica. Tough crowd. Penguins are picky.
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I also teach life drawing, but in in addition to the traditional naked people, I let animals loose on the studio. Past guests have included: skunks, snakes, owls, lizards, tortoises, giant snails and meerkats. If it has a pulse and doesn’t like to sit still, I’ve probably made someone draw it. You haven’t lived until you have tried to draw a sexually maturing armadillo. Some pencil cases have been left emotionally scarred.
I’ve rambled about my work at festivals like the BAFTA qualifying Aesthetica and London International Animation Festivals, where people kindly listened, and no one threw anything. I have taught Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration and currently lecture in Animation at the University for the Creative Arts.
I’m the founder of This & Hat. — a brand, a practice, a loose collection of ideas wearing a nice jacket.
When not animating or wrangling wildlife into classrooms, I can usually be found playing tennis or golf, or spending far too much time thinking about Aldershot Town FC, who I follow with the kind of loyalty normally reserved for cursed objects.
Mostly I make films. Occasionally I remember to eat lunch.
