Miss Persona is a delightful show created by Children’s Media graduates Kimberly Persona and Brandon Lane. Persona is the show’s star, creator, producer and songwriter, and Lane is the showrunner and director.
After just a few months on the air, the show received two nominations for the 46thAnnual Daytime Emmy Awards. Kimberly Persona was nominated for “Outstanding Performer in a Children’s, Family Viewing or Special Class Program,” and Miss Personawas nominated for “Outstanding Preschool Children’s Series.” These are not Miss Persona’s first accolades. The show was also nominated for two Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence and won the award for “Digital First Content - All Age Groups.”
Miss Persona began its journey on YouTube. For years, Kimberley Persona created the episodes in her free time and built her audience online. Miss Persona’s quality attracted Treehouse TV, and in the Fall of 2018, the show launched on Treehouse’s YouTube channel. By the winter, the show was so popular that Treehouse picked it up for daily broadcast on television.
Persona and Lane were prepared for the transition. While internet videos have no requirements for length or video quality, the team had ensured that Miss Personawas already up to the standards of broadcast television. This preparation allowed for a smooth leap to TV, and Persona and Lane were thrilled with the opportunity for a wider audience. “Treehouse is the top-rated kids’ channel on Canadian specialty cable TV,” says Lane, “so it’s an amazing home for the series, both online and on TV.”
Persona and Lane have collaborated for years, and together they operate a boutique production company called Balloon House Productions. Balloon House produced another series and film called Princess Sparkly Butt & The Hot Dog Kid,which has also received award nominations this year. The Children’s Media Program played a key role in Persona and Lane’s industry success. “Centennial’s program provides the context and professional contacts to really understand and find opportunities in the Kids’ Media industry,” says Lane. “Every single class contributed to our collective knowledge that helped get the series made.”
In addition to teaching childhood cognitive development, writing for the growing mind, and branding and producing content, the program gave Persona and Lane internship experiences that paved their way to industry careers. Miss Persona was even partially developed at Centennial College, as Kimberly Persona worked on the character and show for course assignments. Thanks to Centennial, Lane says, the team was able to “pitch the series to the right people and be trusted by them to make it.”
Miss Persona is a live-action preschool series about an imaginative girl who solves problems through dress-up role-playing. For fans of children’s entertainment, the show is chock full of nostalgia. The show was shot in the same studio as The Big Comfy Couch, and cast members include Alyson Court (star of The Big Comfy Couch) and the legendary Fred Penner.
So, what’s in store for Miss Persona? Persona and Lane hope to tour live shows in the future, and the pair are working on new scripts for a season with longer episodes
By Gabriel Holt