Jesus "Jess" Española (born December 23, 1959)[a] is a Filipino former animator, layout artist, and assistant director. Primarily known for his work as the latter two of Fox's Futurama and The Simpsons. In his early career as an animator, he contributed with Hanna-Barbara for several animated series in late-1980s to early-1990s, most notably The Smurfs.
Española was born in Caloocan, then in the province of Rizal (now Metro Manila), on December 23, 1959, and raised temporarily. He is conceived out of wedlockas a product of rape between his Kapampangan teenage mother, when she was a high school student, and the father of one of her classmates.[4] His first name, Jesus, was named by his mother's friend in Caloocan.
Before his birth, his mother and her elder sister lived in Guimaras during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in almost two years prior as her father and grandfather were killed during the war.[4] At his mother's age of sixteen, she left from Guimaras to Manila, went to search for her mother and took a job as a maid like her mother was, but she could go to school. Despite her popularity in school, she was raped by the father of one of her classmates, although she kept her secret from her mother, resulting to her pregnancy; leaving to Caloocan without her, she was adopted by her friend to raise him properly. She later married a man from Pampanga, a town they moved in when he was at the age of nine.[4]
Before he enters and graduated elementary at Pampanga as a valedictorian, his stepfather forced him to work to the farm, but he ran away from his family as a result to pursue his dream. During his teenage years, he experienced hunger during high school while working as a dishwasher to earn enough money.[4] After graduating high school, he attended the University of the Philippines for Fine Arts to study animation and layout design, but only he majored in painting.[5]
Career
Since he graduated University of the Philippines with a Fine Arts degree, he started working with Fil-Cartoons, a subsidiary of Hanna-Barbera in Pasig where he served as lead animator and supervisor in 1985. He spend much time of animation for several cartoon shows, particularly The New Yogi Bear Show and The Smurfs. His exceptional talent was immediately noticed by the company, giving him the opportunity to work with Hanna-Barbera in Los Angeles.[5][4]
After he left Hanna-Barbera in the late-1990s due to layoffs, he joined Film Roman to work as a layout artist and assistant director for King of the Hill and Futurama, and later The Simpsons after he met Matt Groening.[6] One of the most notable episodes from the latter series was "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind", whose assistant directorial work for the episode eventually made history as the first Filipino ever to win a Primetime Emmy after his failed attempt of the previous Futurama episode he direct, "Roswell That Ends Well", also won an Emmy but assistant directors were not included in the nomination; he insisted among the governors that deserves to be included in the nomination.[4]
Personal life
Since Española and his family left in the United States in 2016, he stayed in Quezon City with his wife, Lourdes, and two children.[6]
^The official age of Jess Española is 56 in prior of the official date of September 13, 2016 where it established the news of Inquirer.net, so it combines the age (56) with his birthdate (Dec 23) without a year and Inquirer's published date (Sept 13, 2016), calculate with the year of 1959.[1]
^Some sources identified Española as being “the first Pinoy” to win an Emmy, but none of these Filipino-born have a Primetime Emmy, both win and nominated, before 2008; some have won Emmys other than Primetime in the past, including Ronnie Del Carmen won a Daytime Emmy while Rochit Tañedo and Rita Nazareno also won the News and Documentary Emmy and Regional Emmy Award, respectively.[2]