Jambalaya Studio was established specifically to produce ethnically diverse animation projects for television, feature films, DVD, and new media. The company was co-founded by Bruce Smith, one of the animation industry’s top designer-directors, and Hyperion Pictures, for 22 years a leading independent producer of youth-oriented live-action and animated entertainment.

Jambalaya’s first production is the hit Disney Channel series “The Proud Family,” an animated sitcom Smith created about a middle-class African-American family. Fifty-two (52) episodes were ultimately produced – and the series remains among Disney Channel’s most popular programs. Last summer a movie based on the series – “The Proud Family Movie: Island of the G-Nomes” – became one of the Channel’s top-rated original movies, and is now available on DVD. The company is currently in pre-production for a second “Proud Family” movie.

Jambalaya’s subsequent original series “Da Boom Crew,” is a hip-hop sci-fi action-comedy co-produced with Berliner Film Company for Kids’ WB and Cartoon Network.

Smith said “the name Jambalaya was chosen because it sounds unpredictable and musical, and the word itself actually means ‘a mixture of diverse elements.’”
Jambalaya’s forthcoming projects include the CG-animated feature film “I Think My Grandma Knows Kung Fu,” the direct-to-DVD movie “Yummy Yumz,” and the politically provocative TV comedy “BNN: Black News Network.”