Lauren Montgomery

Lauren Eve Montgomery (born May 4, 1980) is an American storyboard artist, director, character designer, producer and writer. Early life Lauren Montgomery became interested in drawing as a youngster and developed an interest in animation. In 1998 she enrolled in the animation program at Loyola Marymount University's School of Film and Television where she graduated in 2002. Style According to Montgomery, "I was definitely influenced by the Disney films. Those were the drawings I was tracing and sketching during my early years. I would study each and every one of the princesses and draw them until I had them all down by heart. My facial features are still influenced somewhat by Disney characters. As I got older, I was definitely influenced by Bruce's style in Batman (referring to Bruce Timm and Batman: The Animated Series), and I started getting into anime, and some of the more subtle styles in anime drawing. The clothing is a little more detailed than the typical American animation – it's more believable, yet still simplified. It's the way they draw bodies and cloth that I kind of incorporate into my drawings, as well as certain aspects of how they would draw hair. So I'd say I have a few different influences in my art style." Career Montgomery got her start on the 2002-2004 animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated by Mike Young Productions. Montgomery has done storyboards for animated television series' such as Ben 10 from Cartoon Network Studios. She also worked on the Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow and Hulk Vs animated features, based on Marvel Comics properties by Lions Gate Entertainment. Moreover, she worked on the G.I. Joe features for Reel FX Creative Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Montgomery was heavily involved in the animated series Voltron: Legendary Defender, released between 2016 and 2018. She served as executive producer as well as a director on the first four episodes and storyboard artist and writer on others. Her role as executive producer resulted in death threats against her due to the series' final seasons controversy around its LGBT characters. Following the conclusion of Voltron, she worked as a supervising producer on Santiago of the Seas.