A Mighty Nice gig for Bonnie Taylor Forsyth as she joins the Nexus Studios roster of directors

Mighty Nice director Bonnie Taylor Forsyth is the latest addition to London-based Nexus Studio’s commercial roster, joining the ranks of the animation industry’s top talent.

The Tasmanian-based 2D animator, filmmaker and director has collaborated with Nexus throughout her time at Mighty Nice and says it felt like a ‘natural flow’ to get on board.

Says Forsyth: “I’ve always adored the work they bring into Mighty Nice, so it didn’t feel surprising after so long,’ Bonnie says. ‘But that didn’t take away from the fact that it was a long-term goal of mine!”

Tina Braham, executive producer at Mighty Nice, says Forsyth’s appointment to the coveted Nexus roster speaks volumes about her incredible expertise, skill and creativity: “Bonnie is an enormous talent and an important part of the Mighty Nice team. This appointment is a truly outstanding achievement for Bonnie and shows just how respected, sought-after and admired she is internationally.’

A breeding ground for emerging talent

“Mighty Nice does a great job of lifting their people up, understanding what they want from their careers and tailoring projects to suit,” says Forsyth, who believes this comes down to a culture that supports diversity.

Continues Forsyth: “It’s easy for studios to fall into the trap of hiring the same people. But we couldn’t create such a broad scope of content without a team who reflects those we are representing and understands the gravity of having marginal intersectionality’s.

“Mighty Nice always chooses the right person for the job. But, equally, they always think about seeing things through a different lens. Our boss man, ECD Darren Price, is a huge supporter of women. This kind of culture and values comes from the top!”

Projects that matter

Throughout her freelance and full-time career at Mighty Nice, Forsyth has worked in animation, art direction and storyboarding across various projects.

Most recently, Forsyth was also integral to this year’s Apple World Pride project, creating a range of ads, films and content.

She also directed a short film for the She Creates Change film project and co-directed another. Global education organisation, Room to Read, dreamed up this multimedia, animation and live-action project to promote gender equality through storytelling.

Apple World Pride

As a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, Forsyth was an obvious pick to drive the Apple World Pride project. With a ‘gun team’ of animators and after-effect workers, Forsyth says overseeing the highly-detailed, fast-paced work was a thrill: “Apple already had an illustration for the piece. So we had to reverse engineer it for animation. We developed a good rapport with Apple, who clearly stated their direction and vision. But they also trusted me to choose elements that blended my community’s style against theirs.

“Even though it was a tight timeframe, seeing it come together was a joy. Visibility of our community is so important, especially in the current political climate where we get so much pushback.’