Ella Enchanted Jude's Girl Is A Winner!

At 24 years old, Ella Dobson is already truly making her mark on this world. The Auckland animator already has a slew of awards under her belt (including a prestigious D&AD Next Animator award – it’s almost like an Oscar in her field!) and this month one of her projects she worked on is up for a News and Documentary Emmy Award. Not a bad accomplishment for a recent graduate!

- Alice O’Connell

After finishing her degree in 2016 (a year of which she spent on an international exchange in Vermont, USA), Ella spent 2017 working at an animation studio in Sydney before leaving for the US on a year-long work visa. Ella kept her eyes peeled and submitted applications in as many directions as she could, before landing an incredible project with The New York Times.

“People sometimes say to me, ‘You’re so lucky!’ and yes, luck plays a part in it, but I feel like you have to put a million things out there to get one back,” she tells. “People don’t see all the work you put in and the things that didn’t work out.”

Her hard work certainly paid off and she was asked by the Times to work on an episode in their second instalment of Conception – a series which explores what it is to be a parent in today’s world.