Prime Video’s Hazbin Hotel is the perpetual underdog of animation. After Vivienne Medrano independently produced and released a pilot on YouTube that racked up millions of views, A24 and Prime Video came calling with a full series order. However, it took several years for the show to reach the streamer.
Now, Hazbin Hotel is one of the most popular animated shows on streaming, with a fervent fanbase that loves it for its irreverent humor, great music, and inventive animation.
As part of the show’s For Your Consideration campaign in the quest for Emmy nominations, FandomWire got to speak with Hazbin Hotel creator Vivienne Medrano about the show’s world, characters, music, and more.
Hazbin Hotel Interview
FandomWire: When you created Hazbin Hotel years ago as an independently produced pilot, did you ever imagine being in the midst of an Emmy campaign backed by a major streamer?
Vivienne Medrano: No. It’s very, very exciting. It’s been gradual, but there’s been these explosions that have just been surreal every single time. Like when we were making the pilot, I already had a moderate audience. So I knew people were waiting for it and excited, and I knew it would have an audience. But it exploded in a way that was surreal, and it got this obscene amount of views for the time, and it was huge. That was incredible for me.
And then the fact that A24 was even interested in a season — as an animator and a creator, I feel like a lot of people have that dream of getting a show made. So I was like, “Oh my god, I’m getting a show!” and that was so cool.
Then, to have it backed by a major streamer like Amazon, and have it be a massive hit on their platform, and have it be this bigger thing, and see it in the wild and go to conventions, everything has just been insane. There was the period of time when we were making the season, and there was a little bit of anxiety of waiting in anticipation to see what the consensus of the real thing would be.
It’s been the coolest journey ever. And it’s been surreal that we’re here. It’s incredible. – Vivienne Medrano
FW: The categories that Hazbin Hotel is competing in are historically dominated by several of the same shows, but this year, there’s a lot of room for newcomers like Hazbin Hotel. What do you find exciting about being that newcomer competing against these titans of animation?
Medrano: It’s an honor. To have any kind of inclusion or nomination even, that’s what would be exciting, just to be amongst all these other incredible shows and shows that have been there forever — our titans, like you said, of the industry that are just so iconic and have existed as I was starting out. It’s exciting to be in the mix of that and have this show that just came out; even having a shot at it is incredible.
FW: I think one of my favorite aspects of Hazbin Hotel is the music, and I think the song that’s stuck in everyone’s head is “Loser, Baby.” Do you want to talk a bit about the process behind the music and that song in particular?
Medrano: In my opinion, it’s one of the strongest songs in the season, not only from a musical side but also from a storytelling side. I think that episode is very special to me, Episode Four, “Masquerade.” It’s one that I co-wrote, and it’s also an episode that lasted from my earliest iterations of what I wanted season one to be. That episode always existed. So the fact that now it’s real, and it manifested, I think it has to have the strongest songs in it.
But “Loser, Baby” is kind of the culmination of this very emotional arc that we see over the course of the episode where we get to know more about Angel Dust and we get to see a different side of Husk. We get these two characters that have kind of been at odds earlier in the show to see their real selves and connect in a very real way. – Vivienne Medrano
I also think the message of the song is that, you know, we’re all kind of losers, and that’s not what defines us — it’s what can unite us, the failures and the flaws that we have. I think in a show like Hazbin, that’s kind of the point. A lot of these characters are deeply flawed, but it’s about finding those genuine relationships.
Also, I’m a very big advocate for getting out of abusive and toxic relationships. It’s something I care a lot about, and a lot of my shows deal with, and this episode was big on that. I think there’s also an element to the song that is about finding that kindred spirit and someone else and that connection and that support because that’s usually the first step to overcoming those relationships. It’s a very meaningful song in that way to me.
FW: It’s a great song, and I also think it represents a lot of what I think is really special about Hazbin Hotel, which is that it has this crude humor that you would expect from adult animation, but it’s very warm-hearted as well.
Medrano: Absolutely. That’s kind of what I love because I grew up very sheltered, and then I discovered South Park, and my world just opened up, and I became a huge fan of adult animation. Since then, I’ve tried to consume as much adult animation as I can from the beginning, like The Simpsons, to things currently, like Bojack Horseman, which is my personal favorite.
For me, though, my sensibilities are very different. I’ve never felt like I could — even though I’ll laugh at the edgy of South Park jokes — I’ve never felt comfortable personally making certain jokes like that. There are definitely some boundaries that I just personally don’t want to push. And I feel like there’s a there’s a sensibility in Hazbin that keeps my love of wholesome, emotional, and deep storytelling alongside the raunchy stuff that I also think is funny. – Vivienne Medrano
I think a well-delivered curse word is really funny. I also like writing very naturally, and I feel like these kinds of characters — certain characters definitely curse more than others. But I think that’s something that is also part of my identity. I like a natural kind of dialogue that is usually filled with cursing when it’s an adult project with these kinds of characters that would.
I’ve taken influence from things like Seth Rogen and stuff — some of his comedies are so full of that. So I feel like there’s just a part of my sensibilities that I’m like, “These are the things that I think are funny, and these are the things I feel comfortable joking about.” And then also coupled with the fact that I am a storyteller that wants to have stories, and I want to have depth and I love to cry in media and connect with media and connect with characters. So, I injected that into the series as well.
I think that’s a big part of what makes it very distinctly from me is that I love that mix of things. And I think that also sets it slightly apart from other straight raunchy comedies.
FW: I think the voice cast of Hazbin Hotel is also incredible, from established stars like Stephanie Beatriz and Keith David to voice actor perennials like Amir Talai and those with more of a stage background like Alex Brightman, Erika Henningsen, and Blake Roman. Why was it important to you to blend these different types of performers?
Medrano: I think it’s super exciting. I have worked with a lot of theater talent at this point, and I swear they’re some of the most fun actors for VO that I’ve ever worked with because they’re so broad. I mean, to be on stage, you have to play so many roles, you have to do so many accents, just like VO.
You can trust an actor to do a range of characters, so a lot of our actors will do a lot of background — the incidentals and things like that — because we can just trust them, and it’s always fun, and they’re always up to play, and they’re always up to try something new and improvise. There’s always so much magic that happens in the booth itself.
So theater was a no-brainer because the show is so musical, and that world, to me, is just so synonymous with VO. They have to kind of voice act in a way for the cast recordings and for the back row of the theater.
And then, when it came to these established actors and names and people from the VO world, it’s again kind of a no-brainer. People like Keith [David] and Stephanie [Beatriz] are phenomenal on-screen actors, but they’re also phenomenal voice actors. They’ve done incredible work in feature films, for Disney and things like that, and in the musical world as well.
So it was very important to have singers and very important to have people who are good voice actors, and we were able to find that across the whole spectrum of the industry, and I think that’s very exciting. I love that there’s a mix of everybody.
FW: And you mentioned how these performances have two sides — there’s the singing performance and the acting performance. How did the cast bring these characters to life, both through the spoken dialogue and the musical performances?
Medrano: These characters are very, very real to me — I’ve had them for so long. And obviously, there was a cast before them in the pilot, so it was very important to keep the identity of the characters. But what was amazing was that the re-audition process was so fun. It was fun to hear people do a fresh take on everything.
Obviously, the singing was a massive component, so when these actors came in for the series, I just felt like they were very right, and I do truly feel like they are the perfect voices for these characters because they just embody them.
Like Erika Henningsen is so akin to Charlie in energy, and I think that is felt through the screen. It’s so incredible how weirdly like the character some of these actors have ended up being. It’s so nice to see that infused in the characters and see how much fun they’re having.
I think that’s another thing, too, that you can really hear in the performance how much fun everybody’s having and how much they want to be part of it. That’s a big deal to me because I’ve really liked working with people who at least care about what they’re doing and care about the character a little bit. So it’s been massive to me to work with people who love the show and love the characters and have engaged with the fandom and things like that. It’s been awesome. – Vivienne Medrano
FW: The sound work in a musical is also integral to its success, and I think Hazbin Hotel does a great job in this arena. Could you talk a bit about creating the soundscape of the show?
Medrano: I love very organic sounds. So there’s a lot of animal sound effects and very weird sound effects that I’ve always loved. I’ve always really noticed that in other shows that I’ve grown up with, when they use a sound you wouldn’t expect or an animal sound to do something that there’s no animal involved, and things like that. I think that also adds the hellishness, that it’s very organic and everything’s a creature sound and things like that.
FW: For Hazbin Hotel, you create an incredibly rich, immersive world through animation. Could you talk about some of the technical challenges you had to overcome while animating the world of Hazbin Hotel?
Medrano: The biggest technical challenges are just that my characters are very intricate looking. I did simplify them from the pilot — they were much, much more detailed in the pilot, so they have a much more streamlined look and, I think, more of an iconic look.
As a character designer, I always want to kind of update things. And there were things that I wanted to do even while working on the pilot that it was like, “Well, it’s too late.” So, I applied all that to the series.
It’s also hand-drawn, which is a little bit less common nowadays. It’s very expressive, and it’s very fluid. The biggest challenge is getting that out of these very sharp and edgy characters. But I think that paid off, and it’s also what makes the show a little bit distinct because it’s a style that you wouldn’t normally see animated this way. And I think that’s exciting to me.
FW: And I think the world itself is very unique too — it’s not the typical vision of Hell you normally see. What went into creating some of the settings of Hazbin Hotel?
Medrano: I like doing things that are a little bit different and a little bit more catered to my sensibilities and to me. I’ve seen many, many depictions of hell, and they’re all done in very similar ways, and I’ve really wanted to try to do something that felt a little bit more fun.
I was like, “Well, if a bunch of demons were stuck in one place, they would probably build cities, and they would probably try to live life the best that they can. But it would probably be filled with things that are the dredges of society — a lot of porn shops, and bars, and clubs, and things where sin can happen very freely.”
That’s just a fun concept to me. I also think it’s visually cool. I love neon, and I love bright lights and stuff. Some of my favorite places visually are places like Vegas or Times Square in New York. I really love that kind of aesthetic.
So it was kind of applying that but making everything feel hellish, which is very red. One of the biggest challenges of the show was how red everything is. A lot of the characters have red on them, and the world is very red. We had to figure out the creative challenges of making that work and also making some places more visually interesting so everything had a little bit more color variety.
FW: As a Latina creator of an animated series, you’re bringing great representation to the animated series space. What do you think would be the significance of your show being nominated for Emmys as a role model for the Latino community?
Medrano: Oh, man. I mean, obviously, I want to see more Latino creators and more shows created by Latinx people in general.
But also, I think it’s nice to have a show where that’s not the point. I love projects that are very infused with that identity, and I think this one is, too — there are a lot of Latino characters in it. But there’s something also fun about having a show where that’s not the focus. It’s just from that perspective and involves characters from that perspective, but it’s its own fun, different thing and gets to be itself.
I think in that way, I’d be very honored because there should be, across the board, more Latin creators who get to make their babies and get to shine. So, I’d be so honored to get nominated for that.
But as a role model, I’m always like, “Oh, no, I don’t see myself as a role model.” I would just be honored to represent in a way like, “There’s a Latin creator who was out there.”
I would love for that to be the norm, but I will just be honored if it happens. I’m super excited to even have the possibility of it and the shot. – Vivienne Medrano
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