Web Series Creators Rock!

Hey all! This is Jeff, creator and co-host of Super Geeked Up. You know we love talking all things geeky on our show and website so please forgive me that for one post, I’m going to talk about something else. And then I’ll go back to working on making web shooters.

We’ve had over 100 different web series and over 300 creators, actors, writers, etc. as guests on our show. A big reason for starting the show, besides wanting an excuse to talk about geeky stuff every week, was to help promote the web series community and to do it in a geeky, fun way. I’m ridiculously proud to say that every web series team has said they’ve had a blast on our show and all of them have been a huge part of making our show successful. It’s just one reason it’s been such an honor for me to call myself a web series creator and be part of the web community. I say this a lot but I do so because it’s true: the web series community is the most supportive and amazing one I’ve been a part of. 

Now for the first time since I’ve been in the web space, there’s conflict within the community. Over LA Webfest making an exclusivity clause preventing shows in LA Webfest from also being at HollyWeb and the Indie Series Awards. I’m not going to go into all the details of this. There’s a ton of stuff on social media about it right now and amazing creators like Jason Leaver from Out With Dad and Ed Robinson from Pairings have written open letters you can easily find to get more details. But in short, it’s caused a huge amount of discussion online. Like Hulk Smash kind of discussions!

I was going to write an open letter of my own but I decided I’m going to do something else instead. I realized I’d much rather write a post that puts the spotlight on web creators that have been some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met and have had a huge influence on me. Because that’s what I believe our community is about – supporting one another and helping each other grow. And recognizing people when they do amazing things. And if you’re one of our awesome Super Geeked Up fans reading this, I think you’ll see plenty of parallels within the geek community and how much we support each other in that community as well. And please know how grateful we are that you have made Super Geeked Up part of that community.

So here are some people in the web series community I’d like to give a shout-out to. And please don’t feel bad if you don’t see your name on this list. I’ve gotten to know hundreds of web series people personally over the past few years and if I included everyone I’d probably be writing until 2017. But know I adore all of you and am so proud to be one of you.

Jonathan Robbins

I met Jonathan through twitter where kind of out of the blue he tweeted me about his series Clutch. While I was disappointed to find out Clutch wasn’t porn, I decided to become friends with him anyway. Jonathan works harder than anyone I know. I know this first hand as he’s the Executive Director of the IAWTV Awards and has been working on about three hours sleep for weeks now. In addition to being on the Board of IAWTV, he’s on the Board of IWCC, created Clutch, was one of the main people behind web series Asset, and stars in one of the most popular web series ever, Out With Dad. He volunteers tirelessly to benefit the web community. I have absolutely no idea how he does it all. I may have made a show about superheroes but Jonathan is a true superhero. But that’s not even the most impressive thing about him. The most amazing thing is the kind of person he is. His morals, the way he treats people, what’s in his heart – all these things show me every day the kind of person I want to be. I’m honored that he’s become one of my best friends. Okay, I know that was really sappy. So on to some humor!

Nicole Wright and Tonya Dodds

So these two geeky nuts any of our regular SGU fans will know well since they’re my zany Super Geeked Up co-hosts. I can’t tell you how much I look forward to Wednesday nights (when we do SGU live) and a huge part of that is because of Tonya and Nicole. It’s the most fun geeking out with them every week and we laugh so much on the show and off it’s ridiculous. In fact, I actually think 70% of the time Tonya is just laughing when we do the show. Whether it’s Nicole making posts like she did today about trying to start “UnicornFriday” trending or Tonya trying to convince the world that Joss Whedon is the best thing in the universe ever for all time (and let’s be honest, most people shouldn’t need much convincing of that), I adore these two geeky gals and they’ve made the show so much better and beyond what I ever thought it could be when I created it.

Darlene Sellers

Darlene is the creator of super-funny web series Chop Socky Boom. She’s also one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. What has always impressed me about Darlene is her modesty. She always puts the focus on her actors and her crew and never about herself, making sure they get the credit rather than herself. In fact, she’s probably embarrassed that I’m putting the focus on how wonderful she is here. Well just take the praise for once Darlene :) Because she deserves a ton of praise not only for her talent but also for how she treats everyone who works for her and how she has been such a wonderful supporter of the entire web community. Oh and she also loves Hellboy. I mean like really, really loves Hellboy. When she was on Super Geeked Up, somehow she was able to work Hellboy into every topic of conversation. I still don’t know how she did it. If anyone makes a Hellboy web series, make sure you call Darlene.

Kristen Nedopak

How awesome is Kristen Nedopak? So awesome that she created a new awards show from scratch seemingly all by herself. Kristen created The Geekie Awards in 2013 (an awards show celebrating things very dear to the hearts of SGU fans) and it was hugely successful right out of the gate. She even got Stan Lee to be at the show. Freakin’ Stan Lee!! So jealous! Kristen is a super-talented creator, actress, host and probably a million other things. I don’t think there’s anything she can’t do. She also travels to comic cons and festivals to co-host Super Geeked Up with me when Nicole and Tonya can’t make it and she’s ridiculously fun to work with. Oh and she loves video games so huge points right there. She loves them so much she just started a new series about them called Late To The Game. Woohoo!

Ed Robinson

So Jonathan and I love teasing Ed. Probably because he keeps trying to get naked around us and also is naked in every web series he stars in. Okay I may be exaggerating slightly but only to see Ed’s reaction :) Fully-clothed Ed is an amazing guy! He’s another person who’s been working tirelessly on the IAWTV Awards as our Director of Publicity as well as making his own award-winning series Pairings. I’ve been super-impressed by how he’s tried to reach out in a such a positive manner to resolve the current conflict going on and how much he cares about his fellow creators. He's also super-cool in my book as every time I’m in LA he does a game night where we get to geek out playing awesome tabletop games. Yup Ed’s a huge geek just like me. Unlike me, he actually knows how to cook. Like amazingly well. So as a bonus to geeky gaming, he feeds me and other web creators awesome food whenever we’re at his house. Unfortunately he wears nothing but an apron when we’re there. Haha kidding! Sorry Ed couldn’t resist.

Again, there are so many other people I could highlight and you all know how much I adore you. But now I need to get back to editing Super Geeked Up clips to submit to the IAWTV Awards! Thank you for taking the time to read this! Thank you for being part of our wonderful community. And please stay true to yourselves and keep creating awesome web series!

Jeff Burns

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