In about 1978, a young artist, Bill Davis, came to Severo’s work place looking for a job. Bill was 24, recently married and his wife was pregnant. He needed a permanent position immediately. At the time, Severo was producer/production manager at Learning Garden, a film production company making medical, educational, and corporate films. Bill showed Severo his drawing samples, and Severo was immediately taken with the artist’s graphic energy and sense of whimsy. Bill was a rare talent. Severo pitched the idea to a client to do portions of a medical film on juvenile diabetes in animation. When the client saw Bill’s drawings, he was sold. The finished film turned out to be a success.
In 1979, Severo learned that the FCC had mandated that children’s Saturday morning cartoons be separated from the TV commercials with something they called a “bumper.” Severo came up with several ideas, Bill improved on them and turned them into drawings. Severo took the drawings to CBS and the execs approved them, wrote him a check and said they needed them tomorrow. Over the next three years as a designer/animator for Learning Garden, Bill designed the Bumpers for CBS; the animated portions of the award-winning half-hour adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County for HBO; the award-winning educational film, Astronauts and Jelly Beans, about the history of handwriting. He also worked on numerous other films, and created promotional posters and flyers for Learning Garden.
Award-winning filmmaker, playwright, and writer, Severo Perez grew up in Westside San Antonio and graduated from the University of Texas, Austin. For over forty years, he produced films for PBS, network and cable television, corporate sponsors, and the educational market. His feature film adaptation of the novel …and the earth did not swallow him (1994) by Tomas Rivera won eleven international awards, including one for Best Director and five for Best Picture. His first novel, Willa Brown & the Challengers, is historical fiction based on the real-life African American aviation pioneer, Willa Beatrice Brown. Odd Birds is his second novel. His third book, Filmmaker's Journey, was published in 2024.