When she was three years old in her native Bulgaria, Nadia Vurbenova-Mouri remembers following her grandfather around the house, asking him to draw a chicken over and over again. Eventually, she tried to draw it herself, and after many attempts finally got something that resembled his sketch. From that moment on, she never stopped drawing.
Later in school her art teachers liked her work. But one of them advised her mother that even though her daughter had talent, she should not be encouraged to pursue art because it was such a difficult field to succeed in. Despite this advice, Verbenova-Mouri’s pharmacist parents continued to be supportive. By the time she was seven, she told them there was nothing else she wanted to do besides art, and this determination led her, at the age of 12, to start the two-year preparation process to apply to the extremely competitive National High School of Applied Arts. “The system in Bulgaria was very different to the United States,” she explains. In addition to requiring good grades, applicants were given a topic and had to demonstrate their artistic skills. Vurbenova-Mouri was one of only thirteen students accepted in her year.
After graduating, she continued her studies at The National Academy of Arts, majoring in industrial design. Then, drawn to the idea of Hollywood, she moved with friends to the U.S. She looked for work in graphic design, but only got one callback, and she says with a laugh, “I couldn’t communicate with the person because I didn’t know English.” Fortunately, she happened to meet a fellow Bulgarian who was drawing layouts for animation, and even though this field had never been on her radar, she trained under him. At first he had her do layouts. “I would bring my drawings to the studio, and he would look at them—and he said: You suck!” He suggested she try color, an area she loved. He would give her the layout, and she would paint it. “The very first one that I took back, he said, ‘Oh my God, you have a great color sense!’”
Vurbenova-Mouri worked as a housekeeper to support herself, finally landing her first freelance gig, doing a concept painting for Kroyer Films. She was paid $400 and had to make so many corrections that it took several weeks to complete. Kroyer offered her a part-time job that led to a full-time gig, and so began her career in animation.
She recalls how little she knew then about the industry. She was working on backgrounds for a TV special based on the symphonic fairy tale, Peter and the Wolf, and there was great excitement among her colleagues when they learned the show’s executive creative consultant and character designer would be coming into the studio. When the man told her that her work was fabulous, it meant little to her because she’d never heard of him. He turned out to be none other than the legendary Chuck Jones!
When Kroyer shut down and joined Warner Bros., all the crew was invited to apply for new positions. Vurbenova-Mouri turned down the training position she was offered, demanding more because she thought that after being in the business for one year, she was no longer a trainee. “I was just so green,” she says, “but I was full of energy, and I got the job.” It was a big jump to feature animation, and worried she might be fired for lack of experience, she paid close attention to her fellow painters, studying their techniques. She ended up working on hits like Space Jam and The Iron Giant.
Vurbenova-Mouri moved on to Disney TV at a time when everything in the industry changed virtually overnight and animators had to learn how to use computers. She remembers studying a Photoshop manual over her lunch break, and by the time she spent four seasons on Disney’s Kim Possible, she’d become known for creating innovative styles. In 2005 she was nominated for an Annie Award for production design on that series.
While at Disney she realized that she really wanted to art direct but discovered it wasn’t easy to move up to that next level. Her break came when she worked on Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a color supervisor and then art director. “If you’re good enough and persistent, and you’re nice to the people that you work with—they will give you a chance,” she says. Since 2012 she’s art directed for a number of studios, working on projects like Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? and Santiago of the Seas.
While art directing is challenging, Vurbenova-Mouri feels she has even more to give and has set her sights on executive producing. She also wants to use her experience to help the next generation. “I get a lot of kids contacting me, and I try to answer them and look at their portfolios.” And if she sees potential? She recommends them to people she knows, and emphasizes the advice that propelled her career—never give up.
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