Kat Padua - Director
In 2014, Padua established Ellyfont LLC, a children's media company with a focus on creating high quality content. She has animated licensed children's characters for game applications such as Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Mattel’s Ever After, and Nick Jr’s Dora The Explorer Draw & Play.
Padua has the honor of studying at some of world's finest animation schools. In 2007, she graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Kinetic Imaging. That same year, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship recognized her work in film. She was also awarded the Dean’s Scholarship for academic achievement. In the spring of 2007, Padua was selected by the departmental chair to represent VCU at the Tasmeem Design Conference in Doha, Qatar. She was awarded a grant to study abroad among fellow female artists in the middle east. For three consecutive years, her films and illustrations were juried and selected to showcase at the Anderson Gallery in Richmond Virginia.
From 2008 to 2011, Padua worked at PCM Studios as a Production Artist creating show packages, logos, promos, lower thirds and bugs for live broadcast television. She was responsible for daily and long-term deliverables. She directed the Telly-Winning animation “Nourooze 2010” which was broadcasted to 8 million viewers in Iran.
In 2013, Padua graduated magna cum laude from the School of Visual Arts in New York, earning her master’s degree in Computer Art with a focus in 3D animation. She was awarded the Paula Rhodes Memorial Award for exceptional achievement in computer art and the Philanthropic Educational Organization Grant.
In the summer of 2017, Padua studied in Paris, France at GOBELINS, l'école de l'image International Summer School in Character Animation to further her education in classical animation theory.
In 2017, she animated for WHRO Public Media directing “Hip-Hop Scotch," an initiative aimed at urban youths that screened on PBS Kids and in schools globally. In 2018, she was an animation assistant for the Emmy award winning project "American Evolution: Guardians of Jamestown 1619."
Padua directed the public service announcement, "Vision Zero" to promote traffic safety for the city of Norfolk. Padua won a bronze Telly in 2021. Her roles include campaigning, pitching, scripting, designing and animating.
Padua teaches at The Governor's School for the Arts in both the Visual Arts and Film departments. Her curriculum focuses on the fundamentals of animation and exposing students to various styles of kinetic imagery.
Currently, she is a cohort of the accelerator program 757 Startup Studios to further develop Ellyfont's outreach and business potential.