SAE was delighted to welcome the acclaimed Illustrator, writer, filmmaker and comedian Lewis Hancox to our Leamington Spa campus to speak to students as part of our Freshers Week.
Lewis is a hugely popular creative and has published two widely acclaimed graphic novels, Welcome to St Hell and Escape from St Hell.
He has been featured in the Channel 4 series My Transsexual Summer and co-created an ongoing film project about trans people called My Genderation.
During his visit, we quizzed Lewis on his journey, the various projects he’s worked on alongside his advice for any students looking to forge a career in content creation.
Read his answers below and a huge thank you to Lewis for sharing his insights and experiences.
How did you start your creative journey?
Since I was a little kid, I’ve been drawing cartoons and trying to tell stories. I got into film making as I grew older and have always had this drive to create and entertain.
As I progressed on my personal journey with my transition, my creativity was put to one side. But now I’ve learned to combine the two worlds, I make a lot of comedy content where I subtly incorporate my transition into it. It’s my way of educating people through entertainment, making trans issues accessible for everyone.
How has your career and work evolved?
My work has changed as my career has grown. At one point, I was making silly content for social media, but little did I know I was honing my filmmaking skills. When I was older, I had the chance to make some documentary films with a company called My Genderation where we delve into telling other trans stories from an authentic perspective. I had this more serious documentary strand to my work, then I also wanted to entertain and create comedy so I ended up marrying the two worlds.
And that seems to be where things have taken off – to create comedy with a purpose, that has been key to my success and creating a graphic novel called Welcome to St Hell.
Alongside content creation, animation and film, I’m also working on graphic novels. I’ve published three books now and I’m working on another.
I don’t want to be pigeonholed to just trans issues, I’m trying to be creative in different forms and platforms although it is nice for me to think I could be representative for some trans people, particularly as it’s not something I had when I was growing up. For me, I wanted to learn about trans identities via something that is more relatable or could even make you laugh. That’s my personal mission.
How do you see the role of humour in tackling important issues around being trans?
Humour connects people, particularly in our polarised world where trans lives have become this hot debate. We have people out there fighting the good fight, of course, we should have people doing that. But I think it’s important for people to fight in different ways. I don’t class myself as an activist but by default of being trans, some of the things I do fall under the banner of activism.
For me, there’s so much shouting and misunderstanding on both sides, bringing humour and relatability into it can humanise us and connect both sides.
I’ve had people message me on social media telling me that they are not normally trans or LGBT supporters, but they love my videos. Of course you want them to be allies now but this could be a small stepping stone on their journey to this and they inspire me to keep going – if you can get through to someone laughing along with you or who relates to their own teenage struggles, or having a stressed out mum or being an emo kid, there might be something they can relate to. Humour can be more easily digestible for people.
What skills do you need to break into the world of content creation?
You don’t have to have everything figured out when you’re starting your content creation journey, I learned on the job while doing it. So don’t let your lack of skills or perfectionism hold your back, you need to dive in and find the best ways for you to tell stories.
I’ve had so many knock-backs on my journey. With my graphic novel, I spent years pitching it as a film script and just didn’t let anything top me.
I took my time and kept developing my tone of voice and storytelling skills. I just hope that this gives other people hope, don’t let the knock backs kill your creativity. Perseverance is the main thing, a drive to tell stories and be open to what your audience tells you – create something that is a passion project of yours, gauge what your audience would like to see more – it’s about building a relationship with your audience.
My film coming out is Life of Kai and we’ve been filming with him since he was nine. He’s now 20, he had puberty blockers when they were available and looking back at the film, it’s not perfect. But what we’ve captured is someone’s story, them growing up and transitioning to become a man – it’s a poignant and moving film in the current climate. It’s not perfect – but it’s more about having a story worth telling which is what I’m really proud of. Creativity sparks conversation as does humour – that’s what I’d love to think that my work is capable of doing.
We started the film off our own backs and applied for BFII funding to finish it. They saw it, loved it and have backed it and will be helping us to share it with film festivals too. It’s everything we could hope for, we had no idea where it would go.
When you stick with something, I genuinely believe it can pay off so I always advise people to not let anything knock your confidence – which can be hard. I get anxious about my work sometimes, but I don’t let it stop me.
What would be your essential advice for students?
When you’re at uni, you have a chance to take advantage of the creative community around you – you have the tutors, equipment and also the students you’re studying alongside.
I now find that I do a lot of content creation on my own – there are pros and cons to this and I can crave the creative atmosphere of a university. Students should make the most of being able to bounce ideas off each other and collaborate – finding your community is what it’s all about.
What’s next for you?
I’m hoping to be working on a graphic novel. I had recently had a short comic published in an anthology by Harper Collins, it was a body horror genre, it wasn’t about me and this is the direction I’d love to go in and explore the horror genre more. I’m also getting into DIY animations too and animated film is an area I’d like to delve into too.
Social media is a big thing for me too, I see my social media profiles almost like portfolios for content creation. That’s something I like to keep up, I think it opens doors. I just want to keep creating and finding new ways of telling stories.
Find out more:
Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Facebook
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