Producer
GBH, Boston
Age: 28
In three words: “Dedicated, creative, problem-solver”
What colleagues say: As a first generation Peruvian-American, Angela is dedicated to making sure children of all cultural backgrounds are represented in a positive manner. She’s had a major impact on the development and production of Work It Out Wombats! As producer, Angela contributed to every aspect of the first and second seasons of the production, including helping develop and cast new characters, including our first hard-of-hearing character. She continues to broaden her responsibilities on the series, including by writing scripts and preparing curriculum launches.
Angela is also paying it forward as a mentor for GBH Kids production interns. She has recently completed The Partnership, a professional development opportunity designed for people of color at all levels of leadership, to further develop her career and help her further mentor junior staff.
What Angela says
Decision to work in public media: When I was younger, my family and I watched PBS Kids to learn English together. My parents had immigrated from Peru about a year before I was born and did not know much English, but they knew how important it was to expose me to it. I have so many fond memories of shows like Arthur, Zoom and Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, and these shows had a big impact on my childhood. One of my biggest motivations to work in public media is to create programming that is not only accessible to all types of families, but also engaging and able to create childhood memories like it did for me.
Key accomplishments: I started at GBH with the children’s digital team, but during COVID I became interested in children’s broadcast. I asked executive producers in my department to consider me if a position became available on a show. A few months later, I was so excited to start working on Work It Out Wombats!
Inspired by: How kids are reacting to Work It Out Wombats! I love scrolling through our social media to see the fan art, birthday cakes and bedtime singalongs that families post of their children enjoying our show.
Advice for young public media professionals: Try to meet and learn from as many different people as you can. When I started out at GBH as a production assistant, I scheduled coffee chats with different people at various levels in my department to learn about their work. I wanted to get a sense of what I could do as a production coordinator in the next year and as an executive producer in several years. I also joined a mentorship group with the Children’s Media Association to learn from professionals outside of GBH.
Advice for public media leaders: You’ll never be in a position so high that you can’t learn something new, even from a junior employee. Each new member of our profession can introduce us to new production technologies and bring a different perspective on what audiences are interested in.
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