WonderCon 2025 was in full swing at the Anaheim Convention Center, March 28- 30. This convention is host to a variety of incredible panels. Panels include discussions around community and fandom, behind-the-scenes of the entertainment industry, and celebrity-focused panels when new shows or films are announced. Among those panels was the “3rd Annual Scene Breakdown: Behind the Camera of Film and TV Shows.” We spoke with writers and executive producers Michael Price and Matthew Claybrooks afterward about their recent project titled “Lil Kev.”
Michael Price and Matthew Claybrooks, Creators and Executive Producers of “Lil Kev”
“Lil Kev” is an adult animated show that follows 12-year-old Kevin through life in 1993 Philadelphia. The animated project stars Kevin Hart, Wanda Sykes, Deon Cole, and Henry “Slink” Johnson. Kevin Hart’s team approached both Michael Price and Matthew Claybrooks to write the series.
Matthew Claybrooks and Michael Price discuss how the series came to be and what it was like working together on this project.
Claybrooks:
Well, Kevin Hart’s team was looking to make an animated series, and they went out wide to other writers. They went out to both of us. And, somehow, they both picked us without telling us that they picked someone else! So, they were like, ‘Oh…we gotta put them together!’ And they put us together, and best writing partner I could ever imagine. And a lot of times, this does not work when they put people together.
Claybrooks goes on to explain that they have been working on getting “Lil Kev” on the air for eight or nine years. He says, “So, if I didn’t like this guy, it would have been a hard nine years!”
Price:
I mentioned this on the panel, but when things were looking bad for the show, like maybe it was going to die on a vine, Matt was the one that just kept going and kept at it. [He] kept calling Kevin Hart’s people every couple of weeks…I one-hundred percent give him full credit for keeping the dream alive.
Working on Animation Versus Live-Action
We ask both creators about the differences between working on live-action versus animation.
Price:
That’s a great question…on this show, we’re talking about a real place with real people and real characters. But we’re also creating our world from the ground up in terms of the animation style and the look of it. So, that’s really challenging and really, really fun. And when you get into the production side of it, then you have a chance to sort of tinker with storyboards and…a chance to work over every moment in a way that I think is not as easy to do in live-action.
Claybrooks:
I like animation more, even though I like both. But animation just gives you so many more opportunities to add more jokes to the thing. And then, I love the process of recording the actors because we act it out with them.
Watch “Lil Kev” on BET+!
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