September 18th, 2023 
Jackson Murphy 
Oscar winner Matthew A. Cherry continues the Hair Love story as creator and executive producer of the new animated series Young Love. The first four episodes debut this Thursday September 21st on Max. Cherry talks about what these characters have meant to him and what he hopes they mean to millions of families. First, he reflects on being an Academy Award winner. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)
Matthew A. Cherry: That Academy tag will never get old. (laughs)
Jackson Murphy: (laughs) I remember when you won [Best Animated Short Film]. It was a cool night. And not long after that fun Oscars ceremony in February 2020, you got to work on this show. What does it mean to you over the last three years of shepherding and guiding these characters along this journey?
MAC: We’ve had our challenges. Working in the middle of the pandemic was definitely our hardest part. There are people I met this [past] weekend that worked on the show that I hadn’t met in the three years we’ve been working on it.
JM: Wow.
MAC: That was definitely a challenge. But it was great. This was my first time actually being in a writers’ room. You’re co-showrunning and creating and just trying to make sure the vision you pitched out to Max is getting honored. Definitely was a lot of learning but thankfully there were a lot of great people that worked on this. As you know, film and TV is not a one man sport. It takes a village. It takes a really strong team. We had a great team. Atomic Cartoons did the animation. House of Cool did our boards. Sony Animation also helped out because they were our home studio with “Hair Love”.
JM: I commend you on this series and the tone you take with the first episode, which is fun and enjoyable, but also with this be the continuation of the short, mom Angela (voiced by Issa Rae) has been out of the hospital for a couple months. And this idea of her beating death, but death still being attached to her wherever she goes, is a very serious, powerful theme.
MAC: Yeah. Because the short was fairly kid-friendly but also dealt with a real topic, we wanted to expand that into the series. Let’s not shy away from it. The show is set in Chicago, a very real city where there are a lot of real people that deal with real-life issues. We wanted to embrace it. Angela’s entire arc throughout the season is: What happens when you cheat death and then you get better? What happens next? You definitely can question where you’re heading in life, the next moves you’re making and what your purpose is. That’s something we really leaned into with Angela’s arc — embracing it and not being able to talk about the hard things.
Matthew A. Cherry
JM: I think families will have a lot of good discussions after they watch these episodes. Zuri, the sweet girl at the center of it all, has been a symbol of this whole brand. She’s very confident and curious. What did you want to show with her on this series of her being a girl of today?
MAC: Gen-Z, man, they are so ready to change the world. I think they realized the folks before them kind of messed some things up. They really want to get in there, try to fix them and make things better. Zuri really represents that. She’s super confident. She gets that from her parents. One of the biggest things we explored in the short film that carried over into the series is this idea of listening to your kids. Similar to us working on the show. A good idea can come from anywhere. It’s easy to push people aside and be like, “You don’t have enough experience” or “Why would I listen to you? I’m supposed to be the leader”. But both Stephen and Angela really learn over the course of the season that continual message of the importance of being present and listening to your kids. Zuri is definitely a kid worth listening to. (laughs)
JM: Yeah. Absolutely. Stephen is voiced by Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi). I watched “Entergalactic” last year, which blew me away. I love that he is involved in animation. What do you think, in working with him, is that love of animation that gets him going and gets the two of you going together?
MAC: I met Scott when I was a creative executive at Monkeypaw, Jordan Peele’s production company. And we tried to pitch a live-action show with him and sadly it didn’t get picked up. But we got really cool. I was the point-person on it, and we really developed a friendship. When we were developing the show I was like, “Man, who could play the dad?” And I kept coming back to Scott because we knew the show was going to be set in the midwest. Scott is from Cleveland. Obviously we knew Stephen was going to be a music producer. Obviously Scott works in music. And he’s also a young father. He has a 10/11 year old daughter. It was dope getting to work with somebody who really appreciated the medium of animation.
He’s so talented and underrated. I love the quality and the tone of his voice. He’s able to be really funny but also hit you with some really serious beats at the same time. And he expresses a lot of vulnerability. Stephen is a character that really doesn’t like conflict and often gets thrown into these situations where he’s forced to try to stand up for himself. Scott played the vulnerability of the character really well. I was really honored to have him on the show.
JM: He’s fantastic. I love that my favorite food of all-time, a grilled cheese sandwich, kicks things off in the first episode. Isn’t grilled cheese the best?!
MAC: (laughs) It really is.
JM: And Zuri also has these very specific visions of the red carpet experience. As someone who’s been on a lot of red carpets, what’s a vision of a red carpet experience that has stayed with you?
MAC: The Oscars, man. Getting a chance to be a part of something I’ve pretty much watched since I was a kid. The magic of that. We were able to have the young gentleman, DeAndre Arnold, come-in who was dealing with not being able to graduate because he had locks, kind of like how I have. It was really cool to be about the art but also have a cause behind it. And ultimately we won and got to shout-out The Crown Act. That meant a ton too. Any way you can make the world a little better… is really dope.
JM: Yeah. You have done a lot of great work over the last three years, besides working hard on this show, directing episodes of “Abbott Elementary” (a show I love) and “The Unicorn” (a show I thought was cancelled way too soon). So in going back and forth between live-action and animation over the last three years, did you find similarities or major differences in going back and forth in the TV production world?
MAC: Yeah, for sure. Anytime I’m on set, I definitely think about it differently also being a creator. I’m really paying attention to how the showrunners are running their shows and how the writers on set move in. All the things to help make a TV show what it is. I’ve worked on such a variety of comedy, from “Young Sheldon” to “Ghosts” to “Swagger” to “Saved by the Bell”, to the shows you mentioned… it’s such a great education in comedy and the types of jokes that you may like and want to try to bring over to your show and find the tone.
MAC: Finding tone for [“Young Love”] was honestly the hardest thing. It could’ve been a kiddie show. It could’ve been an adult show. For me, I love comedy that’s a little bit more subtle. I love dry humor and situational, reactionary humor. We wanted the show to have a feeling like it almost could’ve been a live-action show. Working on these other TV series were such inspirations. It was really great in seeing how, “Okay, this is how you tell a joke not only in the writing but also visually, with the directing and visual components too.”
JM: And what I think will be great for families as they’re watching this, with four episodes every Thursday for three weeks, it will be the conversations and gathering with maybe their own cats, and binging these episodes and enjoying all that. That’s got to be a special feeling for you that you’re creating these special days and evenings for families to take-in your content.
MAC: Yeah, hopefully. I’ve never been through this before, having this TV series come out that I was behind. I’m really excited to see the reactions. And hopefully people find their favorite characters. I really hope some artists see it and they… you know what artists do when they get a show they love… they get to drawing them!
JM: Yes. I think the show’s gonna be a big hit. Congratulations on this.
MAC: Thanks, man. I really love your interview style.
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