Vivziepop

Vivienne 'Maree' Medrano (born: ), better known online as Vivziepop (formerly xZoOPhobiAx), is an American YouTube animator who is known for being the creator of the comedy musical series Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. 
She is the founder of SpindleHorse Toons and the author and artist of Zoophobia. Vivienne uses her YouTube channel to post animations and updates on Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. She also uses her channel to livestream.
==Personal life ==
She was born and raised in Frederick, Maryland. She is of Salvadoran descent. Vivienne studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and graduated in 2014.
==History==
Some of Vivienne's first videos were speed draws and animations of other characters she had made in the past (such as characters from Zoophobia). Even at that time, Vivienne still had the idea of Hazbin Hotel in mind. Vivienne made speed draws of characters from Hazbin Hotel and even posted a video about the voices of each of the characters in the series four years ago.
Viv currently makes content mostly on her current running shows Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. She promotes both of the shows‘ merchandise in the channel and livestreams herself either working on her series or doing a Q&A. Before releasing the pilot of Hazbin Hotel, Vivienne posted clips, music videos, animatics, or anything else that is related to the show.
== Content ==
Vivienne works on many projects varying from short animations, animated shows, web comics and so on.
===Zoophobia===
Zoophobia is a web comic about a woman named Cameron who is looking for a job. She finds one, but is in a whole new world called The Safe Haven. The Safe Haven is a world full of many beasts and animals and other beings. Cameron is put as a guidance councilor in an academy, but the problem is, she is zoophobic, afraid of animals.
It was announced on April 7, 2017, that Zoophobia would be rebooted and a series of animated shorts would be produced, the first and only one currently uploaded being "Bad Luck Jack". 
===Hazbin Hotel===
Hazbin Hotel is a web series about the princess of hell, Charlie Morningstar. Hell has an "extermination" once a year, in which angels of Heaven (known as exorcists) come down to Hell to exterminate as many demons as possible, all for the means of solving an overpopulation problem. Because of this, Charlie opens the Happy Hotel, in hopes that demons, primarily sinners, will come to her hotel to rehabilitate and maybe even get redeemed and go to Heaven. She believes that it is a more humane alternative to extermination and to help the overpopulation. After a disaster interview with everyone not on board with the idea of rehabilitation, Charlie gets the help of powerful overlord, Alastor (known as 'the Radio Demon') to help her run the hotel and attract guests.
It was announced on August 7, 2020, that the show had been picked up by A24. On January 19, 2024, the show would release on Prime Video. Episodes released weekly following January 19th, and the first season concluded on February 2nd, 2024. A second season is currently in production.
==== Characters ====
===== Demons: =====
* Charlie Morningstar: The optimistic, and usually overjoying princess of Hell, girlfriend of Vaggie and main protagonist of the series. She opens the Hazbin Hotel in hopes to stop the angels' yearly extermination of demons, and prove sinners can be redeemed. She is voiced by Jill Harriss in the pilot, whereas her singing voice was provided by Elsie Lovelock. In the show she is voiced by Erika Henningsen.
* Lucifer: The king of Hell, and father of Charlie. Whilst he does rule Hell, Lucifer is shown to act over the top in several situations. And commonly switches between being silly, to melancholic. In addition to ruling Hell, Lucifer is also one of the seven deadly sins, embodying Pride. Unlike the rest of the characters, Lucifer debuts in the show rather than the pilot, and is voiced by Jeremy Jordan. 
* Vaggie: The manager of the hotel, and Charlie's girlfriend. A former member of Adam's exorcists, she became a fallen angel after sparring a demon during the yearly extermination. She attempts to guide Charlie out of trouble the best she can, whilst possessing a cautious personality. In the pilot she is voiced by Monica Franco, whilst she is voiced by Stephanie Beatriz in the show.
* Alastor: A radio host who died in the 1930's, who grew to become a celebrity and overlord of Hell. Alastor is unique from the rest of the cast, as his voice is edited with a radio-like filter, giving him the nickname "The Radio Demon." He agrees to help Charlie promote the hotel to attract more guests, and becomes a resident soon after. In the pilot he is voiced by Edward Bosco, whilst Gabriel Brown provides his singing voice. In the show, he is voiced by Amir Talai.
* Angel Dust: A famous gay pornography star of Hell, under contract of overlord Valentino, and is the first resident of the hotel. Angel is not afraid to make consistent sex jokes, preferably the gay type, much to the annoyance of those like Husk. He is voiced by Michael Kovach in the pilot, and in the show is voiced by Blake Roman.
* Niffty: An associate of Alastor, who is presented as a short cyclops like sinner, with a psychotic tendency, and extreme lust for "bad" boys. She acts as the maid and chef of the hotel. She is voiced by Michelle Marie in the pilot, and in the show is voiced by Kimiko Glenn.
* Husk: Another associate of Alastor, who works as the bartender and front-desk-clerk of the Hazbin Hotel, and is presented as a cat demon with wings, who also has a nack for gambling. A former overlord, Husk would lose his position during a gambling session with Alastor, who now owns his soul. Unlike the rest of the residents, Husk is a lot less tolerant of the chaos around him, and as such, is easy to agitate, best shown with Angel Dust's consistent flirting with him. His lack of tolerance makes him unafraid to call out others for how much they annoy him. In the pilot, he is voiced by Mick Lauer, whilst in the show he is voiced by Keith David.
* Sir Pentious: A victorian era snake demon, famous for building steampunk-esque inventions. He served as the main antagonist of the pilot, who, through his inventions and ever-so-infinite army of Egg Boiz, seeked to take full control over Hell. In the show, however, Pentious becomes the second guest of the hotel, and leaves his villanous ways behind him. In the finale of season 1, Pentious is killed by Adam, however is reborn in Heaven, becoming the first ever sinner to redeem himself. In the pilot he is voiced by Stamper, and in the TV series is voiced by Alex Brightman.
* Egg Boiz: Sir Pentious' loyal minions, who as the name implies, are a group of sentient eggs who assist Pentious in his many goals, and usually accompony him wherever he goes. Their origin remains unknown. In the pilot, Pentious appeared to have an infinite army of them, however he is only shown with five in the show. In the pilot, they are all voiced by Joe Gran. Blake Roman provides the voice for all five eggs in the show.
** Frank: One of Pentious' five Egg Boiz in the TV series, and the only one with a confirmed name. Like his fellow Egg Boiz, Frank is dimwitted and idiotic, with a tendency to say "crazy s***" according to Pentious (such as claiming bank accounts are a scam by the "shadow government.") Frank serves a major role in the series, as he is the only resident of the hotel other than Alastor, aware of the angel who was killed during the recent extermination. In the finale, he ends up as the only survivor of Pentious' army. Like his fellow Egg Boiz, he is voiced by Blake Roman.
* Cherri Bomb: A 1980's sinner demon with an Australian accent. She is a close friend of Angel Dust, and Sir Pentious' former rival and love-interest. As she is very close with Angel, she frequently comforts him in times of distress, particularly when he is abused by Valentino. She also enjoys fighting, especially with Angel. In the pilot she is voiced by Krystal LaPorche, and in the show, she is voiced by Krystina Alabado.
* Vox: Alastor's arch-nemesis, owner of VoxTech and member of the Vees. Vox pulls the strings of Hell's news and social media, and strives to ensure those of Pentagram City stay in influence of technology, and away from Alastor. He is voiced by Christian Borle.
* Valentino: The head of the porn studios in V-Tower, the owner of Angel Dust's soul and member of the Vees. Whilst he presents a charming and caring attitude, behind the scenes Val is a complete psychopath, physically abusing Angel Dust, and shows no remorse for the trauma he is inflicting upon him. He is voiced by Joel Perez.
* Velvette: The self-proclaimed "backbone" of the Vees. She is an overbearing, yet trendy employer, who spends a lot of time on social media, and as a fashion designer. As she keeps up with moder technology frequently, she gets on quite well with Vox. On the fashion side, she tends to be very critical and judgy, and shows little to no apathy when Val kills her top model. She is voiced by Lilli Cooper.
===Helluva Boss===
Helluva Boss is an independent web series that is set in the same universe as Hazbin Hotel. It is about an imp named Blitzø (voiced by Brandon Rogers) who owns a business called I.M.P.s (Immediate Murder Professionals) with two other imps, and married couple, Moxxie (voiced by Richard Horvitz) and Millie (voiced by Vivian Nixon) and his anthropomorphic adopted hellhound daughter, Loona (voiced by Erica Lindbeck). I.M.Ps is a business where sinners, humans who have gone to Hell, can pay to get revenge on somebody who wronged them while they were alive. 
Helluva Boss is considered alongside other shows like Murder Drones or Spooky Month to be a prime example of the recent rise in full-length YouTube indie animation series, with Helluva Boss episodes receiving millions of views.
== Collaborations==
She asked YourMovieSucksDOTorg to compose the music for Hazbin Hotel, but Adam rejected the offer due to being busy with other upcoming projects.
GhostfaceNikol works on Helluva Boss as an AE Compositioner.
==Controversies==
===Erin Frost's allegations ===
Throughout the span of 2022, Erin Frost, an former Spindlehorse Productions employee, had made a series of allegations of worker mistreatment from Vivienne with screenshots to accompany said allegations. These claims and screenshots had sparked criticism from many and was seen as defamation.Erin Frost Situation part 1
When she returned back in November of the same year, the public reception towards Frost was negative and former friends and allies would allegedly stop associations with her because of her drama with Vivienne.Erin Frost situation part 2
In May 2023, Frost returned to criticize the character of Sallie May, a widely popular character who is the sister of Millie in the series. The aspect she mainly criticized of the character was the transgender identity of the character. It was revealed that Frost had designed Sallie May and Millie's brothers with the intention of making one of the brothers transgender, but Frost's response to which of the brothers became a transgender was negative, as higher-ups made Sallie May be transgender instead. This stirred a series of allegations of transphobia against her. Frost also gained backlash for criticizing the sexualization the aforementioned transgender character got in the suggestive Valentine's Day themed merchandize for the series, considering it transgender fetishization; that is with every character who appears in the Valentine's Day themed merchandize (which has a mix of LGBT+ and heterosexual characters) getting their fair share of sexualization. Morgana Ignis, Sallie May's VA and a transgender woman herself, voiced her opinion on this, disagreeing with this criticism towards the character.Erin frost situation part 3
YouTuber Ayy Lmao has covered the drama regarding Erin Frost's rants extensively on their YouTube channel. The aforementioned Youtuber would announce in May of that same year that Frost had blocked them on Twitter, potentially related to the video that the Youtuber made on Frost.Mentions on Tumblr
===Alleged toxic workplace/Mocking other projects/Underpaying employees===
Alongside Erin Frost, some people who work or have worked for Spindlehorse Productions have accused Vivienne of worker mistreatment and bad workplace conditions.Alleged evidence found of toxic workplace conditions. However, these allegations prompted Vivienne to take legal action against former employees that attempted to defame her by claiming that they were spreading "confidential information". Vivziepop allegedly silencing workplace victims Her response to said allegations gained heavy criticism. Her response to people she sees as "bad faith".
Vivienne would also allegedly mock other projectsVivziepop allegedly mocking projects and was accused of underpaying her employees for the sake of favoritism.Complaint from a former Spindlehorse employeeMore proof that Vivziepop has done this before Despite this, a leaked screenshot shows that, at least for cleanup artists, for Hazbin Hotel are paid more than the industry standard, and for Helluva Boss are paid far more.Accusation that Vivziepop underpays her employees, despite the screenshot proving otherwiseVivziepop saying pays them as much as she can
=== Transphobia allegations===
Vivienne had made a satirical Zoophobia version of former friend Dollcreep/Jo, whom she was friends with back in 2013, named Jojo. This friend of hers was revealed to be a transgender woman. What's notable about the design of this character, Jojo, was the use of over-saturated colors for the hair, fur, and some aspects of the character's attire. People accused her of transphobia and insensitivity towards transgender people because of the character's over-saturated and overcolored design.Proof of Vivzie being a horrible "friend" to Dollcreep/Jo
Vivienne's political views regarding gender politics relating to topics such as transgenderism have gotten her into backfire over the years, like for example in 2023, when she criticized transgender men and considered them as "ashamed" and "confused". People, again, accused her of transphobia and insensitivity towards transgender people for this. Ken, who used to be a writer for Spindlehorse Productions and former friend of Vivienne, would have a discussion about this opinion she had on transgender men, Vivienne later stating that the criticism she made on transgender men was something "rare".Evidence of Vivziepop being Transmisandrist.An entire document of times where Vivziepop was TransmisandristMore transmisandristic Vivziepop mementsTag for more proof of Vivzie's Transphobia
She also gained backfire for not crediting the voice actor of a transgender male imp from the Helluva Boss episode "Queen Bee".Proof that Vivziepop didn't credit voice actor for trans male imp in "Queen Bee".
===Sexual abuse support/trauma insensitivity allegations===
Throughout Hazbin Hotel, sexual abuse is a prominent theme that develops some of the characters, most notably the LGBT+ characters, in the series. The way that sexual abuse has been portrayed and perceived amongst the characters in the series has been criticized, as characters would destigmatize it occasionally. For example, one of the characters, Husk, would tell Angel Dust, one of the aforementioned sexually abused characters who also works in the sex industry in the series, that the latter character will move on from the sexual abuse. Some found offense towards the way Husk responded to the sexual abuse and saw it as insensitive to people who suffer from traumatic experiences like sexual abuse.Criticism about one of Hazbin Hotel's episodes A song called "Loser, Baby" continues this destigmatizing of sexual abuse, specifically towards Angel Dust, which also gained it backlash for the subject matter.The "Loser, Baby" song is rather insulting to SA survivorsCriticism of lyrics
Another song released for the series named "Poison" follows with the desensitization of Angel Dust for being sexually abused from the song "Loser, Baby". This time, the abuser, Valentino, gets his fair share of attention in this song. Vivienne would crack some dark humor in one of the posts relating to the song, getting her into some controversy. It was then revealed that Vivienne also supported a NSFW Twitter artist named R2ninjaturtle, also known as "Tony Raphielle", who has artwork of Valentino and Angel [who in the series have a relationship dynamic where, like mentioned before, the latter character, who is a sex worker, is being sexually abused by the former character] and actively supported this relationship. Raphielle would also frequently romanticize and sexualize their relationship. Raphielle was found to had worked in/directed the scenes of Angel Dust's sexual abuse from Valentino. The incident went viral online, gaining the attention of KiwiFarms.KiwiFarms talking about Vivziepop supporting NSFW artist R2ninjaturtle
Raphielle would ask for images/screenshots of moments where Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss characters were sexually harassed to add to an NSFW image library related to him along with doing sexual cosplays and roleplays of Angel Dust relating to his relationship with Valentino. People accused Raphielle of supporting sexual abuse for supporting Angel Dust and Valentino's abusive relationship and producing sexual content related to them. Raphielle was also accused of having sexually harassed a 15-year-old girl. Despite all these allegations against Raphielle, Vivienne showed support for Raphielle, claiming he was a survivor of sexual abuse and siding with Raphielle, only for Raphielle to falsify the claim of him being a sexual abuse survivor.Controversy ExplainedProof of Vivziepop supporting RaphielleVivziepop allegedly not listening to SA victim voicesVideo explaining Angel Dust drama
These string of events caused Vivienne to gain a lot of backlash and Vivienne was supposedly planning to leave Twitter and move on to a different platform because of this backlash.
===Alleged racism/Using harmful stereotypes===
Within the Hazbin Hotel series, some characters are canonically supposed to be non-white/POC (In this case, Emily is supposed to be portrayed as a black character). Some people found it insensitive for Emily, a POC, to be portrayed with a gray skin tone. Along with Emily, another character gained some criticism for how they were portrayed being a minority in the series. This character, in particular, is Vaggie, a lesbian Latina women who serves as the representation of Hispanics in the series. Vaggie's personality and character is violent and hot-headed, which was seen as stereotypical and disrespectful towards Hispanics for some fans and watchers of the show.Vivziepop and Emily's portrayalVivzie representing black charactersrepresenting black characters (again)Vivziepop with inclusivitywith Velvet
===Aggressive towards criticism===
In November 2023, Megachan, a user on X (formally Twitter) uploaded a parody of the GLITCH animated series The Amazing Digital Circus. Said parody was a rewrite of the first minute of the pilot in a similar but exaggerated writing style to that of Vivienne's shows, primarily using a lot of swearing. The parody quickly went viral, and soon enough, several more users begun doing parodies of other shows using this same exaggerated version of Vivienne's writing style, all of which also included multitudes of swearing. The parody later got deleted, per request from Vivienne, however, he reuploaded it a while later. People discovered that Vivienne had liked tweets of people who were against criticism and saw it as a detrimental thing to one's reputation.Reupload of videoMore evidence of Vivzie not taking criticism Vivienne would confirm that she would be in agreement of these tweets, prompting the belief that along with the incident with Megachan, Vivienne is unwilling to take criticism.
===Alleged demonization of other cultures===
Within the Hazbin Hotel trading cards, outrage sparked over Alastor being represented using Voodoo, which is an African religious practice originating in Haiti. Some were not happy about the negative portrayal of Voodoo, being depicted as demonic and evil. Mentions of Alastor controversyAlastor controversy
===Alleged art stealing/Not giving proper credit===
During plans of redesigns for Cherri Bomb, a character in Hazbin Hotel, she was accused of having traced the redesign from another artist and not providing credit to the artist. This artist apparently wanted Vivienne to make the redesign inspired instead of being a direct copy.Cherri Bomb design STOLEN?!?
She was also accused of stealing art from a fan for the Helluva Boss Live Autograph account profile pic (in which Viveinne allegedly stole art from a fan by the name of "NinjaHaku21").
Vivienne then gave an apology in which she noticeably wouldn't pay much attention to the tracing allegations, before saying for them to “get the fuck over [themselves]”. Vivienne would come out and admit that she traced artwork even and didn't credit the original animators, with her justification being that "every animator under the sun does it, so it’s okay".
She also gained some backlash for not crediting the right artist for the song "Just Look My Way" (the artist of the song is Paranoid DJ).Original song The song as shown in the series
===Blaire White===
It was also mentioned that Vivienne supported Blaire White, who is a transgender conservative YouTuber. Blaire White has gained controversy for how she depicts minorities in her posts. This would get Vivienne accused of racism when she used the "BLM" tag in a post due to formerly supporting this YouTuber.Evidence that Vivziepop supports Blaire White
===Allegedly toxic behavior===
She has been accused of being passive-aggressive and an "immature jerk", to even blocking people who she sees as against her and bullying people who used to work with her/were her friends. Vivienne has also been shown to follow a few controversial figures, such as Spazkidin3d (a Twitter NSFW artist who made sexual content of characters from Pokémon, Steven Universe, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Nintendo [including Mario]), who is widely regarded as an unlikeable person. Proof that Vivziepop follows bad people"Vivziepop being awful moments" Archive Vivziepop's fans are not any betterVA of Sallie May supporting Vivziepop's transphobiaVivzie's younger sister trying to defend VivziepopMore evidence that Vivziepop is not the best person to supportMore moments of Vivziepop being a nasty person can be seen hereA blog with more evidence of what Vivziepop didAnother document calling out Vivzie's BS.Video of evidence explaining some of the bad things Vivziepop has doneMore Examples (1)More examples (2)More examples (3)
She has liked several tweets referring to people as sub-human, allegedly underpaying her animation crew for their work, and burning bridges with other artists/friends. It was also implied that one of said former artists/friends that Vivienne had working for her had been abused by her.
Vivienne was accused and is seen as being highly hypocritical when it comes to criticism.Vivziepop's hypocrisy with criticism
==Subscriber milestones==
==Trivia== 
*In the Helluva Boss pilot, Erica Lindbeck was the voice of Millie as well as Loona however, starting in episode 1, Erica was only the voice of Loona and Millie had a new voice actor which was Vivian Nixon which explains why Millie has a country accent that wasn’t in the pilot.
*She is bisexual, like her characters Moxxie from Helluva Boss, Charlie from Hazbin Hotel, and Damian from Zoophobia.
*TheSoul Publishing's cartoons, Teen-Z, ZomCom, Beasty Squad, and DUH have been compared to Vivienne's, due to having similarities such as character designs (ex: Pinky's design in Teen-Z is similar to Charlie's) and similar locations (ex: Helluva Boss and ZomCom both take place in Hell, Zoophobia and Beasty Squad both take place in a school for anthropomorphic animals).
*She used to watch Blaire White and Shoe0nHead in the pastVivziepop's artwork of Blaire White and Shoe0nHead 
*Vivienne uses TV Paint, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Sai, and Photoshop.
*Due to Vivienne sometimes deleting posts, there is an archive on Tumblr with screenshots of said posts alleging some of Vivienne's behavior, specifically the "Viviennescreenshots" blog.
==References==
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